Jillian Tamaki Wins Governor General’s Award



There's a really great reaction article here from the Edmonton Journal talking to Jillian Tamaki about her win of a Governor General's Award in the category of Children's Literature Illustration for her work in This One Summer. That is an extremely prestigious award, more than 75 years old, with a significant cash prize component. Congratulations to one of the best cartoonists out there.

Bart Beaty believes this is the first comic to win in any category.

Tamaki has some history with that awards program. When collaborator and cousin the writer Mariko Tamaki received a nomination for the text in their previous book Skim, Jillian's omission underscored the difficulty of singling out a creator in the comics-making process, particularly when hard corporate assembly practices aren't driving the creation. There was a revisiting of the issue this time around as well, and I imagine there may eventually be a comics-only category at these awards and any others like them.

The article in the Journal also notes that SuperMutant Magic Academy is due in the Spring, and suggests a third Tamaki/Tamaki collaboration could happen.

Update: According to Peggy Burns at D+Q: "La Pasteque has won a Governor General"s Literary Award three times. Isabelle Arsenault won in illustration-childrens last year for Jane, le Renard et Moi. La Pasteque has also won twice, for Harvey in 2009, both in children's writing and children's illustration (for different authors)." Burns notes that the guidelines specifically disqualify graphic novels in adult categories, which is just as much an inexplicable rule as the split categories, if not moreso.
 
posted 10:25 pm PST | Permalink
 

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