Nominees for the 2016 Doug Wright Awards were announced on April 21, with many established names featured alongside several up-and-comers.

Montreal’s Drawn & Quarterly dominated the best book award category, with five of the six nominees, including Sylvie Rancourt, Seth, Kate Beaton, Marc Bell, and Jillian Tamaki. Koyama Press author Michael DeForge was also nominated in the category. Conundrum Press received two nominations for the Nipper, which recognizes Canadian cartoonists deserving of wider recognition, for books by Dakota McFadzean and Kat Verhoeven.

Alongside this year’s winners, James Simpkins, the legendary cartoonist best known for his character Jasper the bear, will be posthumously inducted into the Giants of the North Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame. Jasper appeared in many formats, most notable as a regular feature in Maclean’s, from 1948 to 1971, and is the official mascot of Alberta’s Jasper National Park. Simpkins died in 2004.

Founded in 2004, the Doug Wright Awards recognize English-language comics (and those translated from French) by Canadian cartoonists. The Doug Wright Awards will be announced on May 14, during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

Doug Wright Award for Best Book
Dressing by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
Melody by Sylvie Rancourt (Drawn & Quarterly)
Palookaville No. 22 by Seth (D&Q)
Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton (D&Q)
Stroppy by Marc Bell (D&Q)
SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki (D&Q)

Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. “The Nipper”)
Ted Gudlat for Funny Ha-Has (Roads Publishing)
Dakota McFadzean for Don’t Get Eaten By Anything (Conundrum Press)
Rebecca Roher for Mom Body (The Nib)
Sabrina Scott for Witchbody
Kat Verhoeven for Towerkind (Conundrum)

Pigskin Peters Award (for experimental, unconventional, and avant-garde Canadian comics)
Leather Vest by Michael Comeau
New Comics Nos. 6 & 7 by Patrick Kyle
Intelligent Sentient? by Luke Ramsey (D&Q)
We Are Going To Bremen To Be Musicians by Tin Can Forest and Geoff Berner
Agalma by Stanley Wany (Éditions Trip)