Comic Arts Awards of Australia Acknowledging excellence in Australian comics publishing
2014 Judging Panel
Philip Bentley
Philip Bentley is a writer, editor and historian who has also had a long history in Australian comics. He was a founding partner in the Minotaur comic shop (1977-89) and also co-edited and contributed to two 1980s anthologies Inkspots and Fox Comics. From 2006-13 he produced Word Balloons, a magazine on Australian comics, wherein he chronicled some of the above events. These writings were collected as a book A Life in Comics in 2013. He has continued to have a sporadic career writing comics, more recent strips having appeared in Going Down Swinging, Tango and the collection of self-penned tales Passionate Nomads, a former Ledger winner.
Mal Briggs
Mal Briggs is one of the co-founders and managers of Impact Comics in Canberra, now in its tenth year. He has made a few comics, but is pretty sure that he is better at reading and selling comics than making them.
Dr. Elizabeth MacFarlane
Dr. Elizabeth MacFarlane is a writer and academic at the University of Melbourne. In 2011 she designed the Creative Writing subject Graphic Narratives. She is currently researching contemporary Australian autobiographical graphic novels. Her stories and essays have been published in various journals including TEXT, New Scholar, New Antigone and Space. Her fictocritical book Reading Coetzee was published by Rodopi in 2013.
Tim McBurnie
Tim is a freelance comic book artist and illustrator based in Adelaide, Australia. Specializing in character design and story development, he works in the French comic book market as well as in animation and video games. His client list includes companies such as Editions Delourt, Ankama, Blizzard Entertainment, Blur Studios and Wizards of the Coast.
Joe Morris
Joe Morris is the producer and co-host of the weekly comic book talkshow – The NonCanonical Comics Podcast. The show has been running for over 3 years, featuring interviews with the most exciting people working in comics today. Joe prides himself on producing a show that is both engaging and entertaining for comic newbies and die hard fans alike, and using this platform to promote excellent comics by both International and homegrown artists and writers.
Mark Sexton
One of the creators of the classic Australian comic Bug & Stump, Mark Sexton has since gone on to do a PhD in Genetics, illustrated childrens’ books, and provided storyboards and designs for numerous ads and films including Star Wars Episode 2, Mad Max: Fury Road and Happy Feet, for which he was Production Designer. None of which qualify him to be a judge of anything, really. But he’s ready to give it a red-hot try!
Judging Process
Gold, Silver and Bronze Ledgers will be presented for outstanding comics work published in the calendar year January 1 to December 31, 2013.
Judged by a panel of experts listed below, the awards are open to any individual comics/sequential art projects, print and/or digital/web, that are produced (all or in part) by an Australian creator (who identifies as Australian or lives in Australia), or publishers whose main business operations are based in Australia.
The Ledger Awards are not a popularity vote, with the judges being asked to consider each project on its own merits in creativity, craft and execution.
Judging Method
1. A “Long List” of works produced across the calendar year will be developed and made available on the Ledgers’ web site. Projects will also be added to the list via a “Call for Entries”.
2. The Judging Panel of six will assess the “Long List” and each judge will develop a “Short List” of work they believe to be outstanding and worthy of the highest Ledger award: The Gold Ledger.
3. Judges will meet (either in person or online) to discuss the merits of each others Short Lists.
4. Judges each finalise their Short Lists and submit their selections to the Organising Committee.
5. The Committee compare all short lists to arrive at Gold, Silver and Bronze Ledger recipients.
Gold Ledger: awarded when the same project appears on all 6 judges’ Short Lists. A unanimous decision.
Silver Ledger: awarded when appearing on only 5 Short Lists.
Bronze Ledger: awarded when appearing on only 4 Short Lists.
In the rare case where a judge has work in the calendar year that is Short Listed, then that judge cannot vote on the work in question. A Ledger Awards patron will step in to vote on that particular work. The Ledger Awards patrons are Christie Marx and Gary Chaloner.