The 26th annual Ignatz Awards were announced in-person and via livestream last night at the Small Press Expo. Below are the winners of the 2023 Ignatz Awards, honoring the year’s best independent and small press comics:
– Outstanding Story: “Wash Day Diaries” – ‘Ride or Die’ by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith (Chronicle Books.) The comic is an expansion of the award-winning mini-comic “Wash Days” alongside brand-new short stories, of which ‘Ride or Die’ is one such story. This captivating graphic novel is a love letter to the beauty and endurance of Black women, their friendships, and their hair.
– Outstanding Minicomic: “Death Bloom” by Yasmeen Abedifard (Lucky Pocket Press.) The comic follows Niloufar and her recently deceased lover Shadi, who asked Niloufar to tend to her garden in her absence. Niloufar agrees to take on the responsibility, and navigates her grief through the act of gardening.
– Outstanding Collection: “Who Will Make the Pancakes” by Megan Kelso (Fantagraphics), which we reviewed not too long ago. A delightful anthology, united by themes of motherhood, family, and love, perfect for anyone who enjoys slice-of-life storytelling and deeply social stories.
– Outstanding Anthology: “Shades of Fear,” edited by Allison O’Toole & Ashanti Fortson (Balustrade Press.) This anthology of subtle, psychological horror comics features a diverse and fearless group of creators, with a focus on emotional and evocative color, including blood red, sickly yellow, and ethereal blue.
– Outstanding Series: “Tales of Old Snake Creek” by Drew Lerman (Radiator Comics.) This comic is the latest in the “Snake Creek” series, collecting four short stories featuring his characters Dav and Roy getting into hijinks. The stories were originally published in “Detective! Double Digest,” “The Sun and Sand Comic Anthology,” “Spiny Orb Weaver No. 2,” and “The Isolated Anthology.”
– Outstanding Online Comic: “The God of Arepo” by Reimena Yee (self-published.) The comic, about a friendship between a farmer and the god of transient nothingness, was originally released for the 2022 Shortbox Comics Fair, and based on a collaborative writing prompt on Tumblr. Yee previously won the Ignatz award for Best Artist.
– Promising New Talent: Deb JJ Lee for “In Limbo” (First Second.) A Brooklyn-based Korean-American illustrator, “In Limbo,” a highly personal work, was their debut graphic novel. Some previous illustration work includes “The Invisible Boy” with Alyssa Hollingsworth, and comics for The New Yorker. (Was also in a fantasy internet cult from 2009-2011.)
– Outstanding Comic: “Gordita: Built Like This” by Daisy “Draizys” Ruiz (Black Josei Press.) An autobiographical comic, we follow Gordita, a young Mexican-American teenager who lives in the Bronx and struggles with low self-esteem and body dysmorphia. But through her friendships with other girls who are also getting bullied, and mentorship from her guidance counselor, Gordita begins to speak up for herself, and see that she is more than just her body.
– Outstanding Graphic Novel: “Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands” by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly), which we reviewed at the the start of the year. The comic, which has garnered many accolades since its release, is an untold story of Canada, an encounter with the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence, yet is never discussed.
– Outstanding Artist: Olivia Stephens for “Darlin and Her Other Names” (self-published.) It is the first installment of a werewolf-western-horror-romance comic set across Colorado and Kansas in 1881, following two strangers who meet in a moment of mutual desperation and forge a vengeful partnership. Stephens previously created the middle-grade werewolf graphic novel “Artie and the Wolf Moon.”
Congratulations to all the winners! You can check out the year’s full list of nominees at the SPX’s website.
And here are a few of snapshots from the ceremony, appropriately DIY, though better than last year:
No official date is given yet for 2024’s Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards, but it will like return next September 13th-14th or 21st-22nd.
