Announcing the Nominees of the 2026 Doug Wright Awards
Posted on 06. May, 2026 by Brad Mackay in Uncategorized
The wait is over! Here are the nominees of the 22nd annual Doug Wright Awards!
Best Book
Holy Lacrimony
Michael DeForge
(Drawn & Quarterly)
Muybridge
Guy Delisle
(Drawn & Quarterly)
Cannon
Lee Lai
(Drawn & Quarterly)
Salt Green Death
Katarina Thorsen
(Conundrum)
The Last Band on Earth
Elaine M. Will
(Renegade Arts Entertainment)
The Nipper (Emerging Talent)
Mollie Cronin
for Future Me Is Fat
(Conundrum)
Jordana Globerman
for Soul Machine
(Annick Press)
Stefano Jun
for Modern Asian Family: Straight Outta Busan
(Renegade Arts Entertainment)
Alex Swift
for The Connoisseurs
(Frog Farm)
Lis Xu
for Layover and Mad
(Self-published)
&
Raccoon Rescue
(Gytha Press)
The Pigskin Peters (Best Small- or Micro-Press Book)
Life After Life
Joshua Barkman
(Self-published)
Soft Serve & Nosferatu
Matthew Daley
(Self-published)
Old Souls
Jackarais
(Cloudscape Comics Society)
Mobile Gang Fortress
Alexander Laird
(Frog Farm)
Pass Me By: Lily
Kat Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen
(Renegade Arts Entertainment)
The Egghead (Best Kids’ Book)
Way off Track
Carl Brundtland and Claudia Dávila
(Kids Can Press)
Howler Reef
Mike Deas and Nancy Deas
(Orca Book Publishers)
Fantastic Lou
Qin Leng
(Tundra)
Paisley & Peck: Jurassic Farm
J. Torres and Mike Deas (Owl Kids)
My Sister the Werebeast
Alina Tysoe
(First Second)
Changes: If any of the above information is incorrect, drop us a line by Monday, May 11. We’ll fix it.
Nominees for the 2026 Doug Wright Awards were selected from entries of books published in the 2025 calendar year. The short list and winners were chosen by a panel of three judges per category.
Mike Deas stands alone as the only multiple nominee this year, with two nods in the Best Kids’ Book category.
Publishers of multiple nominees include Conundrum, Drawn & Quarterly, Frog Farm, and Renegade Arts Entertainment.
Each winner will receive a small cash prize, and the winner of The Nipper will be awarded a week-long stay at the Valleyview Artist Retreat, in Caledon, Ontario. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame
This year’s Giants of the North inductees are, ironically, known for characters that are small: Emily Hearn (1925–2015) and Mark Thurman, the co-creators of The Mighty Mites, which appeared for many years in Owl magazine; and Arch Dale (1882–1962), an editorial cartoonist and the creator of The Doo Dads.
The Ceremony
The 22nd annual Doug Wright Awards, with host Ho Che Anderson, takes place at the historic Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto, on Saturday, June 6, at 8 p.m. ET. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube (subscribe now so you don’t miss out).
Judges
Thanks to this year’s judges: Patrick Allaby, Aaron Costain, Kurtis Findlay, Jaleen Grove, Luiza Junqueira, Dylan Magwood, Frances Reilly, Joan Steacy, J.J. Steeves, Alyson Lee, Hartley Lin, and Blaise Moritz. Read more about each of our judges on the Doug Wright Awards website.
Sponsors
Thanks, as well, to this year’s sponsors: Crowdfundr, Koyama Provides, Valleyview Artist Retreat, Strange Adventures, the Arts & Letters Club, the Beguiling, and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.
About the Doug Wright Awards
The Doug Wright Awards were founded in 2005 to celebrate excellence in the field of Canadian comics. The awards are named for Doug Wright (1917–1983), the creator of the long-running strip Doug Wright’s Family (a.k.a. Nipper), one of the most widely read and loved Canadian comics of the twentieth century.
Media Requests
contact@dougwrightawards.com
22nd annual Doug Wright Awards poster by Fiona Smyth.
