The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards (or Joe Shuster Awards) are given out annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and comics retailers and publishers by Canadians. The awards, first handed out in April 2005, are named in honour of Joe Shuster (1914–1992), the Canadian-born co-creator of Superman.
The Joe Shuster Awards have been on hiatus since 2021.
History
The Joe Shuster Awards were initiated in 2005 by the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association to honor achievement in comics by Canadian creators.[1] The association's founding organizers included James Waley, Kevin A. Boyd, Tyrone Biljan, and Dave Darrigo. The first awards were presented on April 30, 2005, at the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon[2] (an event with which Joe Shuster Awards co-organizer Kevin A. Boyd was also involved).[3]
In the years 2006–2007, the awards continued to be presented during the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon weekend.[4][5]
In 2008, for the fifth annual awards, the ceremony was not tied to a comic convention for the first time; it was held at the University of Toronto as part of the Word on the Street National Book & Magazine Festival.[6] In 2009 and 2019, the awards were hosted in conventional event spaces in Toronto, including Innis Town Hall at the University of Toronto.
In 2014, the Joe Shuster Awards faced a financial shortfall that placed the future of the awards in doubt, with plans for the 2015 ceremony initially put on hold. At the time, reporting noted that the awards organization had exhausted its funds and was seeking sponsorships and donations to continue operations.[10] Despite this uncertainty, the Joe Shuster Awards resumed in 2015 (presented on October 18, 2015, at the Forest City Comicon, London, Ontario)[11] and continued to be presented annually through the late 2010s. The awards' organizers credited community sponsorship and support for enabling their continuation.[12][13]
The 2016 awards were again held at the Forest City Comicon.[14]
The Joe Shuster Awards are comic book industry-oriented awards that recognize the achievements of Canadian citizens and permanent residents.[16] Founded initially as an English-language comics award, the criteria have been changed and refined since 2006 to be inclusive of all works published in Canada (see Language criteria). The majority of the awards were initially committee-nominated, public-vote awards,[16] with write-in nominations accepted for the International Creator award.[17] This was changed in 2008 to a committee-nominated, jury-selected model, with publishers nominating works within the relevant award category.[18] The model established in 2008 was designed to eliminate voter bias and ballot stuffing. The jury deliberates until they agree on a winner, discussing the merits of each candidate.[18]
They are named after Canadian-born cartoonist Joe Shuster (1914–1992), who co-created Superman in 1938.[16][19] The award, which focuses on professionally published and distributed comics from all publishers including those designated as mainstream such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics, is complemented by the Doug Wright Awards, which focuses on alternative comics, cartooning, and comic strips and avoid mainstream published works.[19]
From the Joe Shuster Award website:
When it comes to defining comics our job is to be as INCLUSIVE as possible when narrowing the selections down to an EXCLUSIVE number of annual nominees – there is only one winner in each category though! We strive to ensure that our nominates represent the entire country's output — whether that output is in English or French (Canada's two official languages) or in other languages — the central defining characteristic of our nominees are that they are Canadian. We don't censure Canadian creators who work with non-Canadian publishing houses — while Canada is a large and diverse country, for the creative awards, there are a very limited number of Canadian publishers.[20]
Harry Kremer Retailer Award
The late Harry Kremer, owner of Now & Then Books in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, was a true pioneer in the industry and a constant and tireless promoter and patron of the medium and owner one of the first comic book specialty stores in Canada.[citation needed] His memory is kept alive in the award that has been named after him – the Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer Award.[16] The Award was given to Kremer's store in 2005, with open voting from 2006 onwards.[21]
Gene Day Self-Publisher Award
Named after the late comics artist and self-publisher Gene Day (1951–1982), this award honours Canadian comic book creators or creative teams who self-published their work, but did not have the books distributed by a third-party distributor. The award winner receives a bursary of $500. The award was introduced in 2009.[22] Prior to this, Dave Sim had established the Howard E. Day Prize distributed annually at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in Columbus, Ohio, from 2002 to 2008.[23]
In 2018, 2019, and 2020, the Gene Day Self-Publisher Award was given to both an individual and to an anthology collection.
Comics For Kids Award (the Dragon Award)
This award was established in 2004.[18] Works considered for this award are comic books and graphic novels that are targeted at readers 14 and under. Nominees are selected by a team of educators led by Jennifer Haines, MA, B.Ed., who is also the proprietor of Guelph, Ontario's The Dragon comic book shop.[24]
T.M. Maple Award
New in 2014, "the T. M. Maple Award will go to someone (living or deceased) selected from the Canadian comics community for achievements made outside of the creative and retail categories who have had a positive impact on the community."[25]
The Joe Shuster Awards honour original work published during the previous calendar year in any language. However, Canada has two official languages – French and English, so extra research and attention is given to works published in the two official languages. In order to ensure that bilingual works are included on the ballot, two nominating committees select the finalists in each official language and the finalists are merged for the announced ballot. The nominated books are then given to jury members who can read both official languages for equal consideration.[27]
Citizenship and residency
The Joe Shuster Awards are open to all Canadian citizens.
Canadian citizens who have chosen to reside outside of Canada are still eligible for consideration, unless they contact the Awards organization and notify them that they have surrendered their Canadian citizenship and no longer wish to be considered for their recent work as a Canadian citizen.
Non-Canadians who have achieved permanent residency status in Canada are also eligible for consideration. In order to be considered for inclusion as a resident, the individual must have lived in Canada for three years. Permanent residents who do not wish to be considered may opt out of the Awards program before the selection process begins by sending a statement in writing to the Awards organization. If an approved permanent resident moves away from Canada, they are no longer considered eligible for the awards.[28]
Categories
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: the section is missing recent awardees. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2021)
Categories and winners of Joe Shuster Awards are as follows:
2020 "'The many creators, retailers, publishers, fans and others who stepped up to help others during the ongoing COVID-19 Crisis in 2020.' Specifically called out were:
The Be Our Heroes, Canada telethon (Heroes World, Gotham Central, The Dragon and Cyber City Comix)
The many artists who donated work for auction to the above, as well as other fundraising for those in need like local food banks, and to those that supported these initiatives by purchasing work."
2021 William "Bill" Paul (1955–2021)
Discontinued categories
The following categories are no longer awarded:
Outstanding Achievement
2005 Dave Sim and Gerhard for completing Cerebus in 2004. Begun in 1977, this 300-issue series is a milestone in comic book publishing and is the longest running creator-owned comic book series.[29]
2006 NO WINNER
2007 NO WINNER
2008 David Watkins for using comic books as a teaching tool.
2007 Brian K. Vaughan for Runaways and Doctor Strange: The Oath (published by Marvel Comics), Pride of Baghdad, Ex Machina, and Y: The Last Man (published by DC Comics/Vertigo)
↑Meyer, Jeff (June 20, 2011). "7th Annual Joe Shuster Awards Winners announced". Go Collect (Press release). The Joe Shuster Award is a national achievement award program for Canadians working on comic books, graphic novels and webcomics and has no restrictions on language, content and/or genre.
123"An Interview with Kevin Boyd of the Joe Shuster Awards". TheExcerpt.com. Interviewed by Dave Howard. Torontoist.com. June 1, 2010. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012. 'This year, because it's the 35th anniversary of the publication of Captain Canuck #1, we decided we would honour the three gentlemen whose names are most associated with the character...'
Weiner, Robert G.; Randall William Scott; Elizabeth Figa; Amy Kiste Nyberg; William T. Fee; Francisca Goldsmith (2010). Weiner, Robert G. (ed.). Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries and Archives: Essays on Readers, Research, History and Cataloging. McFarland. ISBN9780786443024.
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