Here’s a neat piece of comics community news as we come to the endpoint of Broken Frontier’s 2024 coverage. Denis Kitchen has been announced as the first winner of the Underground Visionary Award. Full details below.
The Boston Comic Arts Foundation Announces the Underground Visionary Award
The Boston Comic Arts Foundation announces the annual Underground Visionary Award, given each year at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo to honor the work of an individual, publisher, or community-builder whose dedication has brought opportunity, attention, and change to the comics medium. With this award, the Boston Comic Arts Foundation recognizes people and organizations for their active engagement with the comics format, fostering creativity and community in the world of comics.
Boston Comic Arts Foundation Executive Director Shelli Paroline says, “For years I’ve witnessed the hard work that is put in behind the scenes to uplift comics and their creators. With the Underground Visionary Award, our whole community can let them know: ‘we see you!'”
The first annual award recognizes long-time comics publisher, agent, and champion Denis Kitchen, and was presented at MICE December 8th, 2024.
“I was surprised, honored, and humbled to receive the first annual Underground Visionary award at MICE, and amused to see that, in my honor, the award will consist each year of a different kitchen utensil. What a unique idea. The only challenge for me is how to display this year’s spatula on our mantelpiece!” says Denis Kitchen.
“Denis Kitchen has been, quietly and modestly, one of the most important individuals in independent comics for as long as there have been independent comics, having done so much to help and promote other artists and defend their rights,” says Dan Mazur, Co-Founder and Co-Director, MICE. “AND, he lives in Massachusetts! So it’s very fitting, and a real privilege, for MICE to be able to give out an award in Denis’ name that will both honor Denis and continue the practice of cartoonists helping cartoonists.”
Boston Comic Arts Foundation Board Member and Boston University MFA Visual Narrative Chair Joel Christian Gill says, “The new Underground Visionary Award given in Denis Kitchen’s honor based on his decades of work in the comics community is in and of itself rewarding, but this continuing award will help to recognize those folks who build up the comics community through their work and activism on behalf of all cartoonists.”
