At the tenth annual Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Bowness-on-Windermere, UK final weekend, the National Cartoonist Society introduced that British cartoonist Posy Simmonds was the 2022 recipient of the Sergio Aragones Award for Excellence in Comic Art.
Posy Simmonds, who was unable to attend the award ceremony as a result of household sickness had a pre-recorded video assertion in which she stated:
“I can’t tell you how excited I was to get the news. It really made the sun come out. So I’m very pleased and excited to accept the award and I want to thank the NCS very, very much. It’s a great honour. And big thank you to Julie Tate and Carol at the Lakes International Festival, and everybody else involved with this.”
The National Cartoonist Society’s Sergio Aragones Award for Excellence in Comic Art was launched in 2017 in partnership with the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, the place it’s formally introduced and obtained. Previous recipients have included fellow Brits Dave McKean, Hunt Emerson, and Charlie Adlard; and – final year- France’s Boulet. The award is delivered yearly – besides in 2020, when the Lakes Festival was unable to bodily happen.
Posy Simmonds is a multi award-winning and embellished cartoonist whose work has graced kids’s image books, newspapers, and graphic novels. She is finest identified for Gemma Bovary (1999), Tamara Drew (2007), and her most up-to-date graphic novel – Cassandra Darke (2018). In 2002 she was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by the late Queen Elizabeth II. She has additionally been inducted into the British Comics Awards Hall of Fame in 2014; obtained French journalists’ Prix de la Critique for Tamara Drew in 2009 (in 2001 she was additionally in rivalry for the similar award for Gemma Bovary, solely to lose out to the French version of Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell’s From Hell); and in December Posy can even obtain the Prix Rodolphe Töpffer from the metropolis of Geneva, Switzerland. In 1981 she was additionally named Cartoonist of the Year by the British Press Awards.
Paul Gravett, who accepted the Sergio Aragones award on Posy Simmonds’ behalf stated:
“Posy is very, very upset and sad that she can’t be here today to accept the award. She sends her apologies and lots of love. For me, personally really – as for most of you here – she’s an absolute genius of comics. We are so lucky to have her.”
He continued with an attention-grabbing Posy anecdote from her childhood:
“When she was very younger – and in the event you’re a mum or a dad and also you’ve obtained a child that’s actually in making cartoons – her dad and mom gave her an elephant of paper. Have you any concept what an ‘elephant’ of paper is? It truly is an imperial measure of paper. It’s an enormous sheet of paper. It’s 23 by 28 inches, or 58 by 71 centimetres – I memorised that particularly – and in the event you get a double elephant, it’s twice the measurement. And her dad and mom gave her this when she was very younger, and so they gave her a ream. Anyone know what a ‘ream’ is? It is 500 sheets! And she drew on all that paper rising up. Out of it she made her personal comics. She made her personal little mini comics which had been some stunning issues which her mum saved. We had been in a position to exhibit them and have them in a e book which I wrote about Posy. She is an absolute genius.
“And you would be pleased to know she’s working on a new book. So hopefully in a few years there will be another graphic novel from this brilliant, brilliant cartoonist. So thank you NCS and to Sergio for awarding and recognising Posy Simmonds. A real genius of comics. Thank you.”
Sergio Aragones, for whom the Award is known as, was not in attendance however gave a pre-recorded congratulatory message:
“[Q]uite a pleasure and fairly an honour for me to have the ability to give the NCS Award and to Posy: she’s such an unimaginable artist. I don’t know what to say – she’s an excellent artist that writes so effectively, or a author that attracts implausible. She’s an excellent, nice discovery.
“Sometimes, whenever you’re in one other nation, you don’t realise what number of good artists are round and she or he’s extraordinary. I’ve been glued to the pc taking a look at her work and I really like all the things she does. This award from NCS I feel is so effectively deserved – despite the fact that she has so many crucial awards already. For us, it’s an excellent honour – and to me, particularly as a result of I really like her work.
“Congratulations Posy and keep [up] the work. You’re fantastic. And by the way, I love your cats.”
NCS Foundation President Tom Richmond was available to offer an announcement:
“One of the things that’s so great about this award for us is that you’re researching and trying to find somebody to honour with the award. We get to see and be introduced to the work of some just incredible cartoonists that we don’t really get a chance to see over in the States. It’s just fantastic to be able to get a chance to see the work from so many other places. And LICAF is an important instrument for that. That’s why we just love to be here and why this award is so important to us.”
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