COMICA NEWS

2010 Graphic Short Story Prize

Posted: June 13, 2010

The 2010 Graphic Short Story Prize is officially announced by Rachel Cooke in today’s Observer newspaper:

...I’ve done everything I can to get graphic novels more attention: interviews with their authors, reviews of new books and, most especially, helping to organise the annual Graphic Short Story Prize, now entering its fourth great year. This has been a great success. A former winner, Julian Hanshaw, has already published his first book, The Art of Pho; another shortlisted author has since been commissioned to write his. In 1969, John Updike, who had once thought of becoming a cartoonist himself, addressed a literary society on the so-called death of the novel. “I see no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic strip novel masterpiece,” he told his audience. To my ears, this now sounds oddly prescient. But what do you think? And which are your favourites? More…

Today’s Observer also features an interview with Daniel Clowes by Rachel, which was conducted during his recent Comica appearances in London and Brighton promoting his new book Wilson:

It’s not like a job at Microsoft. You’ve got to be obsessed. Now there are all these people who are not really comic people doing graphic novels. Well, it’s not that easy, actually! I wouldn’t pretend to think I could suddenly write a novel. Screenwriting is the closest thing to it, because a comic book is all about dialogue. Even so, I felt like an amateur when I started that. More…