Broken Frontier Awards 2023: Announcing the Winners – A Glorious Year for Indie and Small Press Picks, and Thought Bubble and TCAF Enter the BF Hall of Fame

Broken Frontier proudly announces the winners of the 20th annual BF Awards, as voted for by you, our readers, and the BF team.

It may not have been a vintage year for insightful or well-informed UK broadsheet comics commentary but it was certainly a vintage year for comics. This year’s Broken Frontier Awards shortlist reflected that and received a near record number of votes, surpassed only by that year when a webcomic with an Instagram account of nearly a million followers was nominated (at least we didn’t have to deal with the site crawling to a halt as we did back then!).

The results are below, and what a year it was for genuinely indie, alternative and small press comics it was. There were wins for some of the key rising micropresses who are embracing the full potential of the medium, reminding audiences of what the form can be beyond the confines what it is traditionally thought to be. These are the micropublishers that are forging ahead with a radical agenda and a belief in the unique properties of the form and, in the process, creating a new Golden Age for alternative comics work.

It was a vintage year for comics.

Also represented are many of the exciting newer and emerging voices on the indie scene from the vibrant small press and/or self-publishing scenes whose practice is replete with experimental and boundary-pushing uses of the medium that reinvent, reframe and manipulate the very language of comics with a stunning visual articulacy.

It was a vintage year for comics.

Also represented among both winners and nominees is a wide range of the socially conscious and progressive work that championed the marginalised and disenfranchised throughout 2023 with empathy and eloquence.

It was a vintage year for comics.

And if you’re at all interested in the history of comics, in terms of both commentary and re-presentations of our sequential art heritage then 2023 was an astonishing year of opportunity. Michael Molcher’s outstanding I Am the Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future was a worthy winner in a field of excellence for Best Book on Comics. And let’s face it, we could have separate categories for Best Treasury of British Comics Collections of Classic Comics and Best Fantagraphics Collections of Classic Comics, such was the strength of their output.

It was a vintage year for comics.

As the world returns to the closest to some sort of semblance we are likely to get to normalcy (in what’s left of my lifetime, at least), we honour this year two of the mainstays of comics events, as we induct both Thought Bubble and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) into the Broken Frontier Hall of Fame. As per last year’s announcement we are now selecting one entrant from Europe, where BF’s roots lie, and one wider international choice each year. Both events are deservedly much loved and admired by BF contributors and readers alike, and are excellent representatives for those festivals that do so much to showcase the widest potential of the art form. It was wonderful to see the comics calendar filling up again with so many comicky happenings in 2023.

Yes, it really was a vintage year for comics.

Every year we say this but if there is work on this list you are unfamiliar with please check it out. It’s there for a reason and it’s worth your time. Much of it will have been reviewed or featured on Broken Frontier already so you can find it through our search option. Other projects have coverage incoming so keep an eye on the front page.

Once again, thank you for voting, for your support for the BF Awards and for all your sharing on social media. Congratulations to all the winners and to the nominees!

Best Writer: Alice Oseman (Heartstopper Vol. 5, Hodder)

Other nominees:

• Dave Cook (Killtopia, Vol. 5, BHP Comics)
• Jeff Lemire (Black Hammer: The End, Dark Horse Comics)
• Marjorie Liu (The Night Eaters: Her Little Reapers, Abrams/Titan)
• Saadia Faruqi (Saving Sunshine, First Second)

Best Artist: Nicole Goux (Pet Peeves, Avery Hill Publishing)

Other nominees:

• CROM (Birdking Vol. 2, Dark Horse Comics)
• Ellice Weaver (Big Ugly, Avery Hill Publishing)
• Martin Simpson (NORD, Soaring Penguin Press)
• Shazleen Khan (Saving Sunshine, First Second)

Best Colorist: Beth Fuller (Witching Hour, Quindrie Press)

Other nominees:

• Ian Simmons (Unicorn, Hunted, ShortBox Comics Fair)
• Joe Sparrow (Cuckoo, ShortBox)
• Miquel Muerto (The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, Dark Horse Comics)
• Shazleen Khan (Saving Sunshine, First Second)

Best Letterer: Natalie Norris (Dear Mini: A Graphic Memoir Book One, Fantagraphics Books)

Other nominees:

• Aditya Bidikar (The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, Dark Horse Comics)
• Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (Dead Boy Detectives, DC Comics/Black Label)
• Nate Piekos (Black Hammer: The End, Dark Horse Comics)
• Roger Langridge (Doctor Who: Liberation of the Daleks, Panini)

Breakout Talent: Pigeon/Kamila Krol (Rusalka: Whispers of the Forest, Strangers Publishing)

Other nominees:

• Deb JJ Lee (In Limbo, First Second)
• Emilia McKenzie (But You Have Friends, Top Shelf Productions)
• Lawrence Lindell (Blackward, Drawn & Quarterly)
• Natalie Norris (Dear Mini: A Graphic Memoir Book One, Fantagraphics Books)

Best Periodical Series: PeePee-PooPoo (Caroline Cash, Silver Sprocket)

Other nominees:

• mini kuš! (Anthology series – various creators, kuš! comics)
• Monster Fun (Anthology series – various creators, Rebellion)
• A Pocket Chiller ( (Anthology series – various creators, Strip for Me)
• The Re-Up (Chad Bilyeu & Juliette de Wit, Bistro Books)

Best New Periodical Series: Blab! (Edited by Monte Beauchamp, Dark Horse Comics/Yoe Books)

Other nominees:

• Boxes (Edited by Steven Ingram, ThirdBear Press)
• Con & On (Paul Cornell & Marika Cresta, Ahoy Comics)
• Fractures (A Wolfgang Crowe, Colossive Press)
• The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos (James Tynion IV & Tate Brombal, Isaac Goodhart, Miquel Muerto and Aditya Bidikar, Dark Horse Comics)

Best One-Shot: Don’t Worry, I Die at the End (Beck Kubrick, Self-published)

Other nominees:

• The Gift (Jamila Rowser and Sam Wade, Black Josei Press)
• Of Thunder & Lightning (Kimberly Wang, Silver Sprocket)
• Times Tables (Gareth Brookes, Self-published)
• Zayani Zam (Mereida Fajardo, Self-published)

Best One-Shot Anthology: Drawn to Change the World: 16 Youth Climate Activists, 16 Artists (Edited by Emma Reynolds, HarperAlley)

Other nominees:

• Change (Edited by Joe Stone, WIP Comics)
• The Color of Always: An LGBTQIA+ Love Anthology (Edited by Brent Fisher and Michele Abounader, A Wave Blue World)
• The Power of Welcome: Real-Life Refugee and Migrant Journeys (Anthology – various creators, Scholastic)
• What Awaits Them (Liam Cobb, Breakdown Press)

Best Webcomic: Guide to the Oblivion (Kry Garcia)

Other nominees:

• After School Lessons for Unripe Apples (Soonkki)
• Hell(P) (Oliver Levang & C. Vinter)
• Nap Comix (Rachael Smith)
• To Be an Actor (Kimhaema, from an original novel by Gogwang)

Best Graphic Novel: Why Don’t You Love Me? (Paul B. Rainey, Drawn & Quarterly)

Other nominees:

• Adherent (Chris W. Kim, Conundrum Press)
• A Guest in the House (Emily Carroll, First Second)
• The Gull Yettin (Joe Kessler, New York Review Comics)
• Monica (Daniel Clowes, Fantagraphics/Jonathan Cape)

Best Graphic Non-Fiction: But You Have Friends (Emilia McKenzie, Top Shelf Productions)

Other nominees:

• Dear Mini: A Graphic Memoir Book One (Natalie Norris, Fantagraphics Books)
• Glass Half Empty (Rachael Smith, Icon Books)
• The Last Gay Man on Earth (Ype Driessen, Street Noise Books)
• Thomas Girtin: The Forgotten Painter (Oscar Zarate, SelfMadeHero)

Best Collection of Classic Material: A Very British Affair: The Best of Classic Romance Comics (Edited by David Roach, Treasury of British Comics/Rebellion)

Other nominees:

• Bungleton Green and the Mystic Commandos (Jay Jackson, New York Review Comics)
• The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1925-1927 (George Herriman, Fantagraphics Books)
• Misty: 45 Years of Fear, the Essential Collection (Edited by Olivia Hicks, Treasury of British Comics/Rebellion)
• Where I’m Coming From: Selected Strips 1991-2005 (Barbara Brandon-Croft, Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Book on Comics: I Am the Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future (Michael Molcher, Rebellion)

Other nominees:

• Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts (Michelle Ann Abate, University Press of Mississippi)
• Comic Book Punks: How a Generation of Brits Reinvented Pop Culture (Karl Stock, Rebellion)
• Howard Cruse (Janine Utell, University Press of Mississippi)
• Jewish Women in Comics: Bodies and Borders (Edited by Heike Bauer, Andrea Greenbaum & Sarah Lightman, Syracuse University Press)

Best Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Other nominees:

• Avery Hill Publishing
• Conundrum Press
• Rebellion
• Silver Sprocket

Broken Frontier Hall of Fame

• 2017 – Annie Koyama (Koyama Press)
• 2018 – Corinne Pearlman (Myriad Editions)
• 2019 – David Schilter and Sanita Muižniece (kuš! comics)
• 2020 – Gosh! Comics
• 2021 – Steve Walsh (Gosh! Comics, Avery Hill Publishing)
• 2022 – Avery Hill Publishing and C. Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics)
• 2023 – Thought Bubble and Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF)

Enjoy what we do at Broken Frontier, both on the site and our work in the wider comics community? Since 2017 BF has run at a significant, five-figure net loss; a deficit that is sadly no longer sustainable. Help us to secure our longer-term future by making a one-off contribution to our running costs here at Ko-fi if you are able. Spreading the word is just as important! Thank you so much.