Comic Arts Awards of Australia Acknowledging excellence in Australian comics publishing
2015 Judging Panel
Philip Bentley
Philip Bentley is a writer, editor and historian with a long history in Australian comics. A founding partner in the Minotaur comic shop (1977-89) he also co-edited and contributed to two 1980s anthologies Inkspots and Fox Comics. He produced Word Balloons (2006-13), a magazine on Australian comics, wherein he chronicled some of the above events, collecting these writings in A Life in Comics (2013). He continues to have a sporadic career writing comics, most recently published in Going Down Swinging, Tango and Passionate Nomads, a former Ledger winner. He currently reviews comics for Matt Emery’s Pikitia Press blog.
Greg Holfeld
Greg Holfeld left Canada for a crazy-brave stab at a Tokyo manga career over 20 years ago and ended up in Australia animating television shows, directing commercials, creating award winning short films, illustrating children’s books, co-creating the popular Captain Congo children’s graphic novel series, the comic In For The Krill, and the acclaimed An Anzac Tale. He lives with his family in Adelaide and still likes sushi.
www.gregholfeld.com | Greg’s Facebook page
Cazz Jennings
Cazz Jennings is a passionate advocate of the Australian comics scene. Her fun and accessible freestyle form of blogging has earned her a legion of devoted readers through her widely respected Nerd Burger blog. In Melbourne, her hands on approach to the community spirit of comics, be it through her involvement with All Star Comics Melbourne or her recent All Star Women’s Comic Book Club, has garnered her both local and international recognition. Always fun, always approachable, Nerdburger cuts through the gristle of stigma’s and cliches of the industry, to expose its ever changing landscape with an open mind and glittery smile.
www.nerd-burger.com/ | Cazz’s Twitter
Amy Louise Maynard
Amy Louise Maynard is a PhD candidate and freelance writer based at the University of Adelaide. She wrote her Honours thesis on the cultural capital of Australian comics, and is currently working on a thesis about the history of Australian comics production from 1975-2015. She is a co-organiser of the Inkers and Thinkers Symposium.
Amy’s Twitter
John Retallick
John is a broadcaster and podcaster, producing 100 episodes of TheComicSpot out of 3CR in Melbourne from 2008-2012 and as a podcast from Tasmania in 2013. He thinks TheComicSpot was the first regular radio program to focus solely on Australian comic art, the comics scene and practicing cartoonists. In 2015 John is again talking Australian comics on the air on Edge Radio in Hobart.
John’s Facebook page | John’s Twitter
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 children’s 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 also 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! Again!
Mark’s IMDB page
See also:
Judging Process
Gold, Silver and Bronze Ledgers will be presented for outstanding comics work published in the calendar year January 1 to December 31, 2014.
Judged by a panel of experts listed above, 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.