Calling all aspiring graphic novelists: time to stand by your drawing board as once again we open entries for the Faber/Observer/Comica graphic short story prize. As ever, the winner receives a cheque for £1,000 and their work will appear in the New Review in print and online (the award for the runner-up is £250, and their story will also be published online). But even better, whoever takes home the prize will know that their work was read and admired by our two guest judges: Posy Simmonds (Gemma Bovery, Tamara Drewe, Cassandra Darke), a retrospective of whose work was recently staged at the Pompidou Centre in Paris; and Luke Healy (How To Survive in the North, Americana, The Con Artists), whose wonderful new book, Self-Esteem and the End of the World, is reviewed above. Posy was one of the judges of our prize in its inaugural year, 17 years ago, and we’re so glad to welcome her back.
What does winning the Faber/Observer/Comica prize mean? For some, it has meant a book deal. Among past winners and runners-up are Isabel Greenberg, whose new book, Young Hag, came out last week; Matthew Dooley, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize-winning author of Flake; and Joff Winterhart, whose graphic novel Days of the Bagnold Summer began its life as his entry in the 2009 competition, and later became a film starring Monica Dolan. To enter, you must simply create a four-page comic designed to run over a double-page spread in the Observer New Review – a story that will ideally have a beginning, a middle and an end, and which will be accompanied by some gorgeous, original illustrations. For more details, including the deadline, click here.
