2019 Judging Panel & Judging Process

2019 Judging Panel

Philip Bentley

Philip 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 recipient.

Siobhan Coombs

Siobhan has been working in comics retail at Kings Comics for over 10 years. She hosts the podcast Serious Issues, and runs the monthly women’s comic book club Queens of Kings.

Brendan Halyday 

Brendan is a comic writer, artist and editor best known for his work on the indie comic series Panic! and XCT – Xtreme Champion Tournament. Brendan has been involved in the Melbourne Comic Creator community for many years where he takes an interest in assisting and encouraging creators. Brendan is the owner of comic collectibles business Brendan’s Comics and the printing and consulting service, The Print Broker.

Dr Elizabeth MacFarlane

Liz is a writer and academic at the University of Melbourne where she teaches Graphic Narratives, Theory for Writing and Short Fiction. She is co-director of artists residency Comic Art Workshop, co-director of comics publishing concern Twelve Panels Press, and chief investigator on the collaborative Superheroes and Me research team. Her writing has been published in journals such as TEXT, New Scholar, Axon, New Antigone, Meniscus, Visible Ink and Space. She published her book Reading Coetzee in 2013 and is currently working on a novel based on the life of Madame de Warens.

Stuart Medley

Stuart was a founder of [sic]BAG Comics back in the 90s, the winner of Adventures in Comics UK, 2013, and comics-artist-in-residence at the Maison des Auteurs, Angoulême, in 2013/14. He is an illustration lecturer and has presented workshops in the UK, Europe and China. Stuart is art director and illustrator for Hidden Shoal, a critically acclaimed record label in its twelfth year with a roster of international artists. He is a founder of the Perth Comic Arts Festival.

Lucas Testro

Lucas Testro is a filmmaker and podcaster. He has written & directed for television (Neighbours; Winners & Losers), theatre (Songs For Europe) and short film (including the superhero comedy Capes and the time travel comedy I’m You, Dickhead). He was a co-host of the former comics podcast Noncanonical, and is currently producer and co-host of the Radioactive Lounge comics podcast, nominated in 2017 for Best Pop Culture Podcast in the first ever Castaway Australian Podcast Awards. 

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, 2019.

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 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 in a second round of voting.

Gold Ledger: awarded when the same project appears on 5 or more judges’ final Short Lists.
Silver Ledger: awarded when appearing on only 4 final Short Lists.
Bronze Ledger: awarded when appearing on only 3 final 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.