Dawning of A New Day Prize

SPACE (The Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) is but a mere two days away, and I'm busy as a bee, or a beaver, or any other animal whose name begins with B, such as a baboon, preparing to promote my humble efforts on this blog at the show and maybe bring a couple hundred new pairs of eyes to bear on these insane ramblings.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to post on Saturday, as I'll be at the show all day, though I will try to con someone out of their cell phone for a couple of minutes so that I can make an audio post with a live report from the scene. I think the best time to do that might be after the Day Prize presentation.

What, you may well be asking, is the Day Prize?

Awarded by Dave Sim, creator of the seminal independent comic book Cerebus, the Howard Eugene Day Memorial Award honors excellence in self-published and independent comics. As SPACE organizer Bob Corby explained in an interview I conducted with him last year for The Atomic Tomorrow: "...The Howard Eugene Day Memorial Award is Dave Sim’s tribute to his comics mentor, Gene Day, best know for his work on Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu and his own Dark Fantasy."

The winner is chosen each year from among entries submitted at the previous year's show and recieves a prize of $500 and a plaque.

The winner is picked by Sim and his creative partner on Cerebus, Gerhard. Each year, the duo alternate duties, with one drafting the "short list" of finalists from all entries recieved and the other judging those books and deciding on the ultimate winner. It looks like this year is Gerhard's turn to pick the winner after Dave does the real heavy lifting of reading all those books.

Entries for the initial Day Prize were collected at the second SPACE show in 2001, the first year in which Sim and Gerhard were Guests of Honor, and the first awards presentation was held at the 2002 show. The previous winners have been Bill Knapp for Faith: A Fable; Columbus, OH creator Tom Williams for Misa; Glenn Brewer, also of Columbus, for Askari Hodari, and Andy Runton for Owly: The Way Home.

The books on this year's Short List are:

Icecreamlandia second issue by Eve Englezos & Josh Moutray

Justin’s Big Chance by Anton Bogaty (Slam Bang #7)

The Lone and Level Sand by A. David Lewis & mp Mann

Maxwell the Demon by Tonia Walden (Attic Wit #6)

Point Pleasant #1 by Chad lambert with art by Steve Black, Ryan Scott, Dan Barlow and Jason Moser

Static Dreaming by Erik K. Siano

Zig Zag #1 by J. Chris Campbell; editor Chris Pitzer

Dave Sim will announce the winner and present the award at SPACE this Saturday at the Aladdin Shrine Complex Multipurpose Room, 3850 Stelzer Road, Columbus, OH. The show runs from ten in the morning until 6 p.m. and admission is a mere five bucks.