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Doug Wright Award
Doug Wright Award trophy
Doug Wright Award trophy, designed by Seth, using an image from Doug Wright's Family
Awarded forAchievement in English-language Canadian comics
CountryCanada
Reward(s)Wood-and-glass trophy
Websitehttp://www.dougwrightawards.com

The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning (established in December 2004)[1] are literary awards handed out annually since 2005 during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to Canadian cartoonists honouring excellence in comics (including webcomics) and graphic novels published in English (including translated works).[2] The awards are named in honour of Canadian cartoonist Doug Wright.[3] Winners are selected by a jury of Canadians who have made significant contributions to national culture, based on shortlisted selections provided by a nominating committee of five experts in the comics field.[4] The Wrights are handed out in three main categories, "Best Book", "The Spotlight Award" (affectionately known as "The Nipper"), and, since 2008, the "Pigskin Peters Award" for non-narrative or experimental works.[5] In 2020, the organizers added "The Egghead", an award for best kids’ book for readers under twelve.[6] In addition to the awards, since 2005 the organizers annually induct at least one cartoonist into the Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall Fame.[7]

The Wright Awards are modeled after traditional book prizes, with the intention of drawing attention to the comics medium from a broad range of demographics inside and outside of its traditional fanbase. The Wrights have garnered acclaim as well as earning the support of a diverse range of participating artists and jurors including Scott Thompson, Don McKellar, Bruce McDonald, Jerry Ciccoritti, Bob Rae, Andrew Coyne, Sara Quin, Greg Morrison, Chester Brown, Lorenz Peter, and Nora Young.[8]

Awards

The Best Book and The Spotlight awards are a large wood-and-glass trophies which are engraved with images from Wright's comic strip (the one difference being the images that are etched on the glass). The award was designed by the cartoonist Seth, who admitted to some embarrassment at being the inaugural winner of the trophy he designed.[9] The Pigskin Peters Award, named in honour of a character from Jimmy Frise's Birdseye Center, is a custom, tailored derby hat with its own unique plaque that doubles as a hat post. It was also designed by Seth.

Each recipient of a Doug Wright Award also receives a custom-bound copy of their winning work.

Nominees

Winners are indicated by ***.

2005

(Jurists: Chester Brown, Rebecca Caldwell, Nora Young, Jerry Ciccoritti and Don McKellar)

Best Book

Best Emerging Talent

2006

(Jurists: Justin Peroff, Alan Hunt and Ben Portis)

Best Book

Best Emerging Talent

2007

(Jurists: Bruce McDonald, Mark Kingwell, Judy MacDonald, Lorenz Peter and Jessica Johnson)

Best Book

Best Emerging Talent

2008

(Jurists: Katrina Onstad, Ho Che Anderson, Marc Glassman, Mariko Tamaki and Helena Rickett)

Best Book

Best Emerging Talent

2008 saw the introduction of a new category dedicated to works that fall outside the bounds of traditional storytelling. Named after a character in the classic Canadian comic strip Birdseye Center, the Pigskin Peters Award recognizes experimental and avant-garde comics.

Pigskin Peters Award

2009

(Jurists: Bob Rae, Andrew Coyne, Martin Levin, Joe Ollmann and Diana Tamblyn)

Best Book

Best Emerging Talent

Pigskin Peters Award

Winners of the 2009 Doug Wright Awards were announced on May 9, 2009 at the Art Gallery of Ontario during a ceremony hosted by actor and director Don McKellar.[10]

2010

(Jurists: Matthew Forsythe, Geoff Pevere, Fiona Smyth, and Carl Wilson)

Best Book

Best Emerging Talent

Pigskin Peters Award

Winners of the 2010 Doug Wright Awards were announced on May 8, 2010 in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon in the Toronto Reference Library, during a ceremony hosted by actor Peter Outerbridge.

2011

(Jurists: Sara Quin, Michael Redhill, Anita Kunz, Marc Bell and Mark Medley)

Best Book

Best Emerging Talent

Pigskin Peters Award

2012

Best Book

Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper)

Pigskin Peters Award

2013

Best Book

Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper)

Pigskin Peters Award

2014

Best Book

Spotlight Award

Pigskin Peters Award

2015

Best Book

Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper)

Pigskin Peters Award

2016

Best Book

Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper)

Pigskin Peters Award

2017

Best Book

Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper)

Pigskin Peters Award

2018

Best Book

Spotlight Award (aka The Nipper)

Pigskin Peters Award

See also

References

  1. ^ Howard, Dave (February 26, 2010). "Interview with Brad Mackay, Doug Wright Awards Co-Founder". davehoward.ca. Dave Howard. Retrieved May 4, 2020. The idea began in Spring 2004.
  2. ^ "The 2005 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning". Sequential: Canadian Comix News and Culture. 2005-08-04. Retrieved 2018-10-21.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Canadian cartoonists honoured in Toronto". cbc.ca. CBC News. 2005-05-30. Retrieved 2020-05-05. Named after one of Canada's most prolific cartoonists, the awards were established to honour excellence in artistic or alternative comics.
  4. ^ Howard, Dave (February 26, 2010). "Interview with Brad Mackay, Doug Wright Awards Co-Founder". davehoward.ca. Dave Howard. Retrieved May 4, 2020. We have a nominating committee, which we're in the process of putting together now. We have usually five people – an odd number – made up of people from across the spectrum. So we have Jeet Heer, Chester Brown, Jerry Ciccoritti, we have Sean Rogers who writes a comics blog for The Walrus, and then Bryan Munn, a retailer and critic from Guelph. So we have those guys on it for this year on the nominating committee.(...)And then from that point we choose our prize jury from a wider cross section of society and we throw them in "The Thunderdome" as we like to call it. We have another dinner with those people and they pick the winners. We tend to have two or three comics-based people on that jury and then the rest are kind of balanced off.
  5. ^ Wong, Jessica (2008-08-09). "Rising cartoonists, Lynn Johnston feted at comic book awards". cbc.ca. CBC News. Retrieved 2018-10-21. A new prize designed to recognize non-traditional or more experimental works, entitled the Pigskin Peters Award, went to Vancouver illustrator Julie Morstad for her first comic work Milk Teeth.
  6. ^ Munn, B.K. (2019-12-09). "Wright Awards Announces New Kids' Book Category". sequentialpulp.ca. Sequential: Canadian Comix News and Culture. Retrieved 2020-05-05. The award will be called "The Egghead", named for Doug Wright's preferred name for his Nipper character.
  7. ^ "Canadian cartoonists honoured in Toronto". cbc.ca. CBC News. 2005-05-30. Retrieved 2020-05-05. Organizers also inducted Wright and four other cartoonists into a hall of fame entitled Giants of the North.
  8. ^ Howard, Dave (February 26, 2010). "Interview with Brad Mackay, Doug Wright Awards Co-Founder". davehoward.ca. Dave Howard. Retrieved May 4, 2020. We try and reach out to the wider culture as much as possible in everything we do. This also extends to our ceremony, which we insist is "jeans-free" – at least for the organizers and presenters. So it's a costume-free zone. As a result, we've had some nice things said about us.
  9. ^ "Canadian cartoonists honoured in Toronto". CBC Arts. May 30, 2005. Retrieved September 20, 2006.
  10. ^ Wong, Jessica (May 10, 2009). "Outsider tale Skim, quirky History Comics nab cartooning awards". CBC News. cbcnews.ca. Retrieved May 22, 2009.

External links

Canadian comics
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