Broken Frontier was founded in 2002 as a comic book and graphic novel news website. The team of worldwide staff writers cover outstanding stories from all around the comics universe, with a preference for independent and creator-owned content. It’s a welcome inclusion in my RSS feeds.
On the note of welcome inclusion, the Broken Frontier Awards are open, and the site has noted that they’ve found socially conscious work has gone hand-in-hand with escapism in the nominations list this year.
To say the least it has been another challenging twelve months for us all on multiple levels. Perhaps reflecting that, this year’s nominations are a mix of socially conscious work reflecting the times we live in and genre-led escapist reading. And sometimes, as in the case of venerable British all-ages comics institution the Beano, which has become a beacon of inclusivity in terms of its characters’ diversity, a mix of both.
Broken Frontier Awards 2022: Nominations
Best Writer
- James Tynion IV (The Department of Truth)
- Jamila Rowser (Wash Day Diaries)
- Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer Reborn, Little Monsters)
- Marjorie Liu (The Night Eaters)
- W. Maxwell Prince (Ice Cream Man)
Best Artist
- Anna Readman (Peach Fuzz)
- Molly Mendoza (Stray)
- Robyn Smith (Wash Day Diaries)
- Tillie Walden (Clementine)
- Zoe Thorogood (It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth)
Best Colorist
- Chris O’Halloran (Ice Cream Man)
- Dave McCaig (We Have Demons)
- Dave Stewart (Black Hammer Reborn)
- Jean-Francois Beaulieu (Twig)
- Tamra Bonvillain (Once & Future)
Best Letterer
- Aditya Bidikar (The Department of Truth)
- Ed Dukeshire (Once & Future)
- Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (World of Krypton)
- Nate Piekos (Black Hammer Reborn)
- Tom Napolitano (We Have Demons)
Breakout Talent
- Alxndra Cook (Momotekku, Koguchi Comics)
- Norm Konyu (The Junction, Titan)
- Shanti Rai (Sennen, Avery Hill Publishing)
- Trinidad Escobar (Arrive in My Hands, Black Josei Press)
- Veronika Muchitsch (Cyberman, Myriad Editions)
Best Periodical Series
- Beano (Anthology series – various creators, D.C. Thomson)
- Colossive Cartographies (Anthology series – various creators, Colossive Press)
- The Department of Truth (James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds, Aditya Bidikar, Dylan Todd, Image Comics)
- mini kuš! (Anthology series – various creators, kuš! comics)
- A Pocket Chiller ( (Anthology series – various creators, Strip for Me)
Best New Periodical Series
- The Adventures of the Anomalous Viola Holm (Ria Grix, self-published)
- G.I.L.T. (Alisa Kwitney, Mauricet, Rob Steen, Ahoy Comics)
- Image 30th Anniversary Anthology (Anthology series – various creators, Image Comics)
- Monkey Meat (Juni Ba, Image Comics)
- SHELTER (Lucy Sullivan, self-published)
Best One-Shot
- Arrive in My Hands (Trinidad Escobar, Black Josei Press)
- The Black Man’s Guide to Getting Pulled Over (Johnny Parker II, Felipe Horas, Scott Ludwig, Shawn Atkins, Kayla Ruffin, Microcosm Publishing)
- Cicatrix (Elle Shivers, Silver Sprocket)
- Sorry for the Inconvenience… We Are Trying to Save the World (Myfanwy Tristram, self-published)
- Stray (Molly Mendoza, Bulgilhan Press)
Best One-Shot Anthology
- Animal Stories (Peter & Maria Hoey, Top Shelf Productions)
- Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors (Gareth A Hopkins, self-published)
- Movements and Moments (Various creators, Drawn & Quarterly)
- Sensory: Life on the Spectrum – An Autistic Comics Anthology (Various creators, Andrews McMeel)
- WiPXL (Various creators, WIP Comics)
Best Webcomic
- Buuza!! (Shazleen Khan)
- Drowse (Frank Verano, Nick Klinger, Jaime Huxtable & Taylor Esposito)
- I’m Fine I’m Fine Just Understand (ND Stevenson)
- Lore Olympus (Rachel Smythe)
- Ragwort Wood (Sarah Gordon)
The winner of the Broken Frontier hall of fame last year was Steve Walsh. Steve Walsh was a British comic book community member, a beating heart of it, known for his work at Gosh! Comics and then Avery Hill. Sadly, he died this year of a brain tumour.
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