British creators recognised in Ringo Awards

Congratulations are very much in order to ace UK-based comic creator Matt Garvey this week, who was among the winners in this year’s Ringo Awards, announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con, at the weekend, along with other top draw talent in the comics medium.

Matt won the award for Best Comics-Related Publication, for his self-published, much recommended book, Making Your First Comic, self published last year.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or a writer looking to level up, <a href="https://link.amazon/B0gJuGpyt” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Making Your First Comic is your no-nonsense, step-by-step guide to writing, producing, and publishing your own indie comic.

Matt Garvey is a self-publishing veteran who has released over 30 indie titles, and his this 200+ page guide comes packed with proven advice, writing techniques, creative strategies, and practical rerting Your Own Comic, more essential reading, available here, along with many of Matt’s other works

Congratulations, too, for Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, recognised as “Best Letterer”, who has worked on titles like Vault Comics’ The Blue Flame, Black Stars Above, The RUSH, Engineward, No One’s Rose, and TEST, as well as X-O Manowar, First Knife, and Undone By Blood. 

The Ringo Awards for the best achievement in comic books were announced. All the winners and this year’s nominees are noted below

Congratulations to both winners and nominees!

(AmazonUK Affiliate Links where available for winners).

Fan Favourites

• Favorite Villain – Doctor Doom (Marvel Comics)
• Favorite New Series – Excavator (D4K Studios)
• Favorite New Talent – Reese Hannigan
• Favorite Publisher – Etan Comics
• Favorite Hero: Batman (DC Comics)

Jury and Fan Winners

Best Series

Winner: Absolute Batman, DC Comics

Nominees:Absolute Martian Manhunter, DC Comic; Coexistence, self-published; FML, Dark Horse Comics; Granite State Punk, Orange Cone Productions; Murder Podcast, Ignition Press

Best Anthology

Winner: Bowling with Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, Dark Horse Comics

Nominees:Flash Gordon Adventures Vol. 2, Papercutz; Jim Henson Presents, BOOM! Studios; Knapsack Magazine Volume 2: Butter, Lucky Pocket Press; unSEEN/unHEARD: Disability & Neurodivergence Comic Anthology, self-published; Young Men in Love: New Romance, A Wave Blue World

Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel – Ages 11 and Under

Winner: Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse and the Amazing Lost Ocean, Fantagraphics

Nominees:Brume Vol. 1, Astra Books for Young Readers; The Fire Breathing Duckling, Astra Books for Young Readers;The Lost Sunday, Oni Press; Magda, Intergalactic Chef: The Big Tournament, Lerner Publishing Group; Max, A Little Axolotl, Scholastics Inc.; The Mighty Bite #3: Hog Rocket Ruckus, ABRAMS; The Patchwork Girl of Oz Volume 1, Image Comics

Best Humour Comic

Winner: The Goon: Them That Don’t Stay Dead, Albatross Funnybooks/Dark Horse Comics

Nominees:The Blues Brothers – The Escape of Joliet Jake, Z2 Comics; Everything Sucks: Kings of Nothing, Silver Sprocket;How to Survive an Affair, self-published; Physics for Cats, Drawn & Quarterly

Best Writer

Nominees: Joseph Schmalke, James Tynion IV, Robert Venditti, Mark Waid

Best Colourist

Nominees: Jordie Bellaire, John Kalisz, Javier Rodriguez, Alejandro Sanchez, Stefano Simeone

Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel – Ages 12 and Up

Winner: Raised by Ghosts, Fantagraphics

Nominees:Angelica and the Bear Prince, Penguin Random House/Random House Children’s Books; Dracula’s Brunch Club, Oni Press; Hello Sunshine, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Hunger’s Bite, Union Square & Co.; Wynd Book Four: The Power of the Blood, BOOM! Studios

Best Webcomic

Winner: Neon Pantheon, neonpantheoncomic.com

Nominees:Battle Mage Farmer, Tapas Entertainment Inc.; Before We Sail, Aces Weekly; Daughter of a Thousand Faces, Tapas Entertainment Inc.; The Mafia Nanny, WEBTOON Entertainment; Marionetta, WEBTOON Entertainment

Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)

Nominees: Caroline Cash, Scott Chantler, Anders Nilsen, Ben Passmore, Tiffany Petitt, Mimi Pond, Paige Walshe, Ben Wickey

Best Letterer

Nominees: Taylor Esposito, Rob Leigh, Troy Peteri, Nate Piekos, Ben Wickey

Best Cover Artist

Nominees: Gabriele Dell’Otto, Colm Griffin, Tula Lota, Daniel Parent, Riley Rossmo

Best Non-fiction Comic Work

Winner: Surrounded: America’s First School for Black Girls, 1832, Ablaze Publishing/NBM Graphic Novels

Nominees:Fela: Music is the Weapon, Amistad; Ginseng Roots, Pantheon Books; Love Letters Every Day, Background Noise; Lucas Wars, Macmillan – First Second and 23rd Street; Muybridge, Drawn & Quarterly

Best Original Graphic Novel

Winner: Herobear and the Kid Vol. 1 – The Inheritance, Papercutz

Nominees:Black Arms To Hold You Up, Pantheon Books; The Corus Wave, Avery Hill Publishing; David Dastmachian’s Through, Z2 Comics; Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me, Drawn & Quarterly; Drome, Macmillan – First Second and 23rd Street; The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief, Fantagraphics; Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games, Clover Press

Best Humour Webcomic

Winner: Nothing Butt Nightwing, DC Go!/DC Comics

Nominees:The Bathroom Ghost, WEBTOON Entertainment; Evil Inc., evil-inc.com; Harley Quinn in Paradise, DC Comics / DC Go!; I Am the Chief, iamthechiefcat.com; My Little Warlord, DC Comics / DC Go!; Taste of Justice, DC Comics / DC Go!

Winner: Making Your First Comic, self-published, by Matt Garvey

Nominees:Becoming Frazetta – The Early Years of a Fantasy Art Master, Thrilling Nostalgia Comics; COMICS! The Magazine #0, Prana Publishers; Facing Feelings: Inside the World of Raina Telgemeier, Scholastic Inc.; Graphic Samurai: The Art of Denys Cowan, Gizmoe Press; Messiahs, Meshugganahs, Misanthropes, and Mysteries, Fantagraphics

Best Presentation in Design

Winner: Lone Wolf and Cub Deluxe Edition Volume 1, Dark Horse Comics (Designer: May Hijikuro)

Nominees:Beasts of the Four Nations: Creatures From Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dark Horse Comics; Becoming Frazetta – The Early Years of a Fantasy Art Master, Thrilling Nostalgia Comics; Cry Wolf Girl, Silver Sprocket; Ginseng Roots, Pantheon Books; The Hero Trade: Hero for Sale TPB, Bad Idea; Land of Mirrors, Drawn & Quarterly; The Smurfs Archives Vol. 1, Papercutz; Tongues, Vol. 1, Pantheon Books

Best Short Story

Winner: Chest Face, self-published

Nominees:“Pied Piper” in Cthulhu Invades Fairy Tales, Orange Cone Productions; “The Knife and Gun Club” in Detective Comics#1100, DC Comics; The Fire Breathing Duckling, Astra Books for Young Readers; “Red Snapper in the Rea” in Milk White Steed, Drawn & Quarterly; Model Five Murder, Silver Sprocket

Best Artist or Penciller/Inker Team

Nominees:Becky Cloonan, Werther Dell’Eera, Jay Fosgitt, Liam Sharp, Hayden Sherman, Stefan Tosheff

Mike Wieringo Spirit Award

Winner: The Avengers in the Veracity Trap, Abrams ComicArts

Hero Initiative Awards

Dick Giordano Humanitarian of the Year Award

• Jeffrey Brown

Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award

• Jim Lee

Brogan Fidelity Award

• Jim Calafiore

Congratulations to this year’s winners.

• About the Author
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John  is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who MagazineandOverkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of  comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.

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