The 21st annual Doug Wright Awards were presented on Saturday, June 7, at the Arts & Letters Club, in Toronto. Here are the winners:
Seth presents the Best Book award to Maurice Vellekoop. (Jeff Speed)
The Doug Wright Award for Best Book
Sponsored by the Beguiling
I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together
Maurice Vellekoop
Random House Canada
The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for Emerging Talent
Sponsored by Koyama Provides and Valleyview Artist Retreat
Boum
for The Jellyfish (trans: Robin Lang and Helge Dascher)
Pow Pow Press
The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for Best Small- or Micro-Press Book
Customer Service
Patrick Allaby
Self-published
The Egghead: The Doug Wright Award for Best Kids’ Book
Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival
Trina Rathgeber, Alina Pete, Jillian Dolan
Orca Book Publishers
Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame
Two cartooning legends were inducted into the Giants of the North this year:
Captain Canuck and Giant of the North Richard Comely. (Jeff Speed)
Richard Comely, the publisher, artist, and writer best known as the co-creator of the iconic Canadian superhero Captain Canuck, a character celebrating his fiftieth anniversary in 2025. Ron Kasman, a comic creator who has worked on Captain Canuck and was one of this year’s D.W.A. nominees, inducted Comely, who was on hand to accept. The Captain himself was also present to hand out the award.
Lou Skuce (1886–1951), the newspaper and advertising cartoonist and showman known for much of the twentieth century as Canada’s Greatest Cartoonist. Skuce’s granddaughter, Heather Christensen, accepted the award on behalf of the late artist. An account of Skuce’s life and career, as well as several samples of his work, can be found on the website of the late Taddle Creek magazine.
Ephemera from the careers of both Giants was on display throughout the evening.
The host Jay Odjick. (Jeff Speed)
The artist and producer Jay Odjick hosted the Doug Wright Awards for the first time this year.
The awards once again played to a full house, and can now be viewed in full on the Doug Wright Awards YouTube channel.
Most of this year’s nominated books can be ordered from our friends at the Beguiling comic shop, which has once again put together a special D.W.A. collection page on its website.
Sponsors
Thanks to this year’s sponsors: Crowdfundr, Koyama Provides, Valleyview Artist Retreat, Strange Adventures, the Arts & Letters Club, the Beguiling, and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.
About the Doug Wright Awards
The Doug Wright Awards were founded in 2005 to celebrate excellence in the field of Canadian comics. The awards are named for Doug Wright (1917–1983), the creator of the long-running strip Doug Wright’s Family (a.k.a. Nipper), one of the most widely read and loved Canadian comics of the twentieth century.
Media Requests
dougwrightawards@gmail.com