Canadian comic book creator news for May 3, 2025

Here’s the latest news about Canadian comic book creators for Saturday, May 3, 2025

Doug Wright Award nominations announced
Established in 2005 to honour special achievements in Canadian cartooning, the 2025 Doug Wright Award nominees have been announced this week. The nominees are:

The Doug Wright Award for best book
Age 16 by Rosena Fung from Annick Press
Bog Myrtle by Sid Sharp from Annick Press
I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together by Maurice Vellekoop from Random House Canada
The Field by Dave Lapp from Conundrum Press
The Jellyfish by Boum (trans: Robin Lang and Helge Dascher) from Pow Pow Press
The Wendy Award by Walter Scott from Drawn & Quarterly

The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for emerging talent
Boum for The Jellyfish (trans: Robin Lang and Helge Dascher) from Pow Pow Press
James Collier for Ballpark from Wig Shop & More or Less Books
Rosena Fung for Age 16 from Annick Press
Frances V. Reilly for The Harrowing Tales of La Corriveau from Dirty Water Comics
Sid Sharp for Bog Myrtle from Annick Press

The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for best small- or micro-press book
Be Yourself! Oh, Not Like That . . .  by Emilia Strilchuk (Self-published)
Customer Service by Patrick Allaby (Self-published)
The Cosmic Con by Ron Kasman from At Bay Press
The Same Water by Richard Fairgray from Richard Sux
The Slenderest of Leashes 1 by Xiaoxiao Li (Self-published)

The Egghead: The Doug Wright Award for best kids’ book
Alterations by Ray Xu from Union Square Kids
Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival by Trina Rathgeber, Alina Pete, Jillian Dolan from Orca Book Publishers
The New Girl by Cassandra Calin from Graphix/Scholastic
The Racc Pack by Stephanie Cooke and Whitney Gardner from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
The Sh*t Witch by Lis Xu (Self-published)

Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame Inductees
Richard Comely – co-creator and original publisher of Captain Canuck
Lou Skuce – newspaper and advertising cartoonist

The 21st annual Doug Wright Awards, with host Jay Odjick, takes place at the historic Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto, on Saturday, June 7, at 8 pm ET. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube.  Read more at https://dougwrightawards.com/announcing-the-2025-doug-wright-award-nominees/

Allan Stanleigh featured at Calgary Expo
CTV News interviewed Allan Stanleigh during his exhibit at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. In the conversation Allan spoke about his graphic novels USNA – The United States of North America and the relevance of the story to readers in today’s tumultuous times. Read more at https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/calgary-expo-united-states-of-north-america-comic-book-drawing-fresh-interest-you-can-guess-why/

Archie and friends help Newfoundland fire department
CBC News reported about how Archie Comics helped Newfoundland’s Harbour Breton Volunteer Fire Department. The article offered insight about how the volunteer fire department received support from Archie Comics for a special edition issue with special cover art to help raise funds for the new equipment. Read more at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/archie-comics-harbour-breton-1.7518041

Megan Huang talks about ‘Ghosted‘
AIPT Comics spoke with Megan Huang about her ongoing story ‘Ghosted’ with Guy Adams appearing currently in 2000 AD. During the chat, Megan spoke about story, what it means to have the story published in 2000 AD, the elements of the story that appealed to her, details about the collaboration process, the visual elements of the story and more. Read more at https://aiptcomics.com/2025/05/01/ghosted-creator-qa/

Guy Delisle in the spotlight for new graphic novel
The Alta reported on the new graphic novel from Guy Delisle entitled Muybridge. The write up features insight from Guy about why he created the graphic novel and an overview of the book for readers. Read more at https://www.altaonline.com/california-book-club/a64265334/guy-delisle-muybridge-biography-photographer-eadweard-muybridge/

Chip and Ramón to see Stillwater on small screen
Deadline reported that Stillwater created by Chip Zdarsky and Ramón K. Pérez is being turned into a TV series. The article wrote that Greg Berlanti (notable for CW’s Arrowverse TV series) and Carly Wray (notable for Watchmen) are adapting the comic book series for Amazon. Read more at https://deadline.com/2025/04/greg-berlanti-stillwater-amazon-foster-dade-hulu-max-series-1236375987/

Panel One in the spotlight
The Scene Calgary wrote about Panel One, the comic book convention celebrating Canadian creator-owned comics. The article includes comments for Panel One Comics Society president Hartley Rose, comic book creator Rob Gruszecki and Calgary’s Nick Johnson. Read more at https://thescenecalgary.com/festival/panel-one/

Jeff Lemire talks up Black Hammer for Free Comic Book Day
Forbes interviewed Jeff Lemire and Letizia Cadonici about the Black Hammer story featured in Dark Horse’s Free Comic Book Day issue. Jeff spoke about what it Free Comic Book Day means to him and the background for the overall storyline. Read more at https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshweiss/2025/05/01/jeff-lemire–letizia-cadonici-deliver-superhero-crash-course-with-black-hammer-one-shot-in-honor-of-free-comic-book-day/

In case you missed it, check out this interview with Meg Leader about PRÊT, Camille?