The winner of the seventh annual Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity was announced in a video (hosted by Phil LaMarr) on The Beat’s YouTube channel this weekend, and it is Marc Bernardin and Ariela Kristantina’s young adult fantasy graphic novel “Adora and the Distance.”
First published by comiXology in 2021, and then in print by Dark Horse Comics in 2022, “Adora and the Distance” follows the adventures of a young, autistic princess of color, who encounters pirates, ghosts, and a mysterious force called the Distance, which threatens to destroy her world. Bernardin and Kristantina both sent in acceptance speeches (the latter in English and Indonesian), where Bernardin expressed gratitude for the positive reception towards the book, which was inspired by his autistic daughter.
Other nominees this year were Harmony Becker’s Japanese foreign exchange student tale “Himawari House;” Johnnie Christmas’s middle-grade “Swim Team;” Lilah Sturges and Meaghan Carter’s trans fantasy OGN “Girl Haven;” and “Nuclear Power,” an adult-aimed, alternate history OGN by writers Desirée Proctor & Erica Harrell, and artist Lynne Yoshii.
This year’s judges consisted of ten comics and animation professionals who knew McDuffie, namely Marv Wolfman, Colleen Doran, Jamal Igle, Joseph Illidge, Kevin Rubio, Geoffrey Thorne, David F. Walker, Matt Wayne, award director Will J. Watkins, and The Beat editor-in-chief Heidi MacDonald.
