While David Mazzucchelli is no stranger to winning awards for his phenomenal graphic novel Asterios Polyp, every once in a while one comes around that makes even him stand up and pay attention. Mazzucchelli earned the first ever Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels, as he beat out “Luba” by Gilbert Hernandez; “GoGo Monster” by Taiyo Matsumoto; “Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe” by Bryan Lee O’Malley; and “Footnotes in Gaza” by Joe Sacco to win it. Not exactly a group of scrubs.
As the program notes for the awards said, “with the Graphic Novel Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes becomes the first major book prize in the United States to honor publications in this category, which is an expanding part of the book landscape, both aesthetically and commercially.” That’s major, and I can’t think of a title that deserved it more from 2009.
