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Longlist For First Graphic Novel Award 2025, Announced At The Lakes

The Longlist for the First Graphic Novel Award 2025, has just been announced at The Lakes

The First Graphic Novel Award has announced their longlist for 2025. The award offers the winner, or winners, the opportunity to have their completed graphic novel published by partner SelfMadeHero. It is open to all cartoonists, writers and artists who are UK residents, individually or as a team, who have not previously published a full-length graphic work. Entrants are asked for 15-20 pages of a graphic work-in-progress, fiction or non-fiction.

This year's judges  graphic novelists Shazleen Khan, Oscar Zarate and Karrie Fransman, contemporary artist Janette Parris, and SelfMadeHero publisher Emma Hayley. Announcing the longlist at the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in Bownesson-Windermere today, Emma Hayley said: 'This year the Award received a massive 220 entries, a 30% increase since 2023, giving the judges a very difficult task to choose who should go forward! I'm grateful to my fellow judges for all their hard work, and delighted that we have selected 30 entrants to be longlisted for the next stage of the competition. Do please take time to visit the First Graphic Novel table in the Comics Marketplace over the weekend, where the longlisted entries will be on display. Finally, thank you on behalf of the Award to all the entrants for sharing your time, effort and amazing comics.'

Longlisted authors will receive feedback from the judges and have their work reviewed by The bks Agency, sponsors of the £500 prize for the winner. The shortlist will be announced at the Thought Bubble Festival on 15th November, and the winner revealed at an event at Waterstones Piccadilly in January 2026.

The First Graphic Novel Award is in partnership with the Cartoon Museum, and SelfMadeHero, and is generously supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The longlisted authors are: Natalie d'Arbeloff, Cathy Brett, Yu-Ching Chiu Sacha Cvetanovic with Alexander Morris, Millie Dobson, Leina Elgohari, Bex Gilbert, Chie Hosaka, Asia Kazub, Alanah Knibb, Lizz Lunney, Hannah McCann, Harriet Merry, Wes Mountain, Calico M. Netwally, Lauren O'Farrel, Judy Powell, Teresa Robertson, Richard Rudge, Graham Samels with Maria Solecki & Jenny Turner, Yanna Sapon, Lois de Silva, Joshua Sims, Jeeti Sing, Savannah Storm, Ella Stovel, Qianyu Wang (2 entries), Jess Winton, Lottie Withers. I'm going to say this now, "Bikes To Watch Out For", a comic book about cycling, has won the pun title award from Bleeding Cool right now….

• DOUBLE ENTENDRE
  Natalie d'Arbeloff
  An experiment looking at a life well-lived, 95 years in the making. In this graphic autobiography, d'Arbeloff recalls and interrogates her experiences of events and adventures, whilst acquiring some useful self-knowledge along the way.
• MARY & AGNES
  Cathy Brett
  The true story of an almost centurylong friendship. Two Scottish-born 14-year-olds, after becoming
  pen pals in 1926, both emigrate overseas, one to Europe and the other to America. This sets them on
  wholly different paths – one with an unforeseeable ending.
• A SLEIGH NO-ONE KNOWS
  Yu-Ching Chiu
  A story about the meaning of life involving a depressed rabbit, a sheep experiencing an existential crisis, and an utterly ludicrous military project. Philosophical concepts in the strangest of contexts, but somehow true to all…
• 2119 A TALE OF TWO CITIES
  Sacha Cvetanovic, Alexander Morris
  In an AI-ruled future, with Mars already settled in two city-states, two brothers are parting ways. Mechanic Oscar is bound for Saturn's moon Titan, while his brother Finn is falling in with a dangerous crime syndicate, on a path of no return.
• BIKES TO WATCH OUT FOR
  Millie Dobson
  The existential, off-kilter journey of one cyclist in search of the bike they'd left on campus, and how they got home again. Join in the cyclist's solitary stream of consciousness, featuring personified groceries, arm wrestling, and zombies.
• GOOD HAIR
  Leina Elgohari
  Hair is part of a person's identity. It's how you present yourself to the world, and the world responds back. This is a story of how Western norms create global attitudes, about appearance and belonging, and how people get in your head about what's on your head.
• STORY OF MY LIFE WITH ADHD
  Bex Gilbert
  When Bex is finally diagnosed with ADHD at 45, everything starts making sense. It's bittersweet news: initial empowerment gives way to social stigma and frustrating medical bureaucracy. Now Bex must find the community and support she needs on her quest for understanding.
• GAS
  Chie Hosaka
  After a somewhat embarrassing trip to the hospital, 32-year-old Tia's farts start talking to her. And she's moved back in with her mother. Tia has too much bottled up inside – her past, her grief… When will it find, well, release?
• THE TIDE GOES OUT
  Asia Kazub
  In late 19th century Poland, two childhood friends – Mira and Damroka – make a pact to never be married. One day, Mira breaks this pact, but Damroka cannot let her go. As the wedding draws closer, things of myth and folklore come to life…
• THREE NINES FIVE
  Alanah Knibb
  Recently diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson's disease, Asabi moves her young family from Africa to the UK. Struggling to reconcile her changing identity with her culture, faith, and diagnosis, she turns to Aunty Tiwa – who lives with Lewy body dementia – for answers.
• FORGET-ME-NOT
  Lizz Lunney
  Loss and memory. Growing up often comes with both. This collection of autobiographical comic essays looks back on 25 years' worth of grief, compassion, and moments of humour to create a guide for the bereaved.
• ST BRIGID & ME
  Hannah McCann
  Brigid: saint and goddess. In this memoir, the fight for abortion rights in her homeland of Ireland inspires the author to reconnect with Saint Brigid, and to connect the dots between traditional folklore and modern social justice.
• THE SCHOOL RUN
  Harriet Merry
  Within the world of the family car, one mother navigates six journeys through nature: two for her children, one for herself, and then all three all over again. Different struggles, different stories, but a shared road through a loved world.
• NO GOODBYES
  Wes Mountain
  Do we have a right to disappear? Is it possible anymore? Thanks to modern technology, D.I. Sarah Blakely has noted more and more appearances from cold case missing persons. But before she can find some connection, their bodies start washing up on beaches…
• KITTISH BANTER
  Calico M. Netwally
  When Irsim finally gets away from their conservative Muslim parents, they're hardly expecting to end up in Leeds' gayest Muslim house-share. Soon enough, thanks to new friends and the landlord's excitable daughter, they're considering their relationship to religion altogether.
• THE FROZENS
  Lauren O'Farrell
  Unaware that she's only days away from a cancer diagnosis, Lauren saves a boy she sees lying on the railway tracks. Soon she meets her own Death, and they both embark on a wild journey towards loving life.
• UNCLE C.O.
  Judy Powell
  Dawning with the 20th century, this hand-me-down story is told in the shadow of one mysterious larger than-life relative. See 'Uncle C.O.' lead his family from obscurity in Ireland to prosperity in England – but he who giveth can taketh away…
• TWINS
  Teresa Robertson
  In this memoir celebrating extended family life, the author loses her twin brother while weeks away from delivering her first child. How does one bridge the gap between death and life? How do lost things come together again?
• IT ALL COMES TOGETHER, IT ALL FALLS APART
  Richard Rudge
• Growth and decay, creation and destruction, beginning and ending… This is a story of cycles, of how time turns, of how mistakes are made and learned from. What does it mean to live in a changing world, and to be part of its changes?
• GROWING
  Graham Samels, Maria Solecki, Jenny Turner
  Right before Natasha's 40th birthday, her perfect life collapses. Cheating partner, flaky friends – but, when she's unexpectedly awarded an unwanted allotment, she discovers you don't always need a perfect life to live a good life.
• WOLF GIRL WICKED
  Yanna Sapon
  In her final year of school, Vivienne just wants to be invisible. One wrong move could capture the attention of Caoimhe, the sadistic queen bee who rules the student populace. But then Caoimhe's behaviour starts changing… And there's someone watching in the woods.
• FALLING IN LOVE ON THE FAMILY COMPUTER
  Lois de Silva
  2008: on the adolescent internet, two likewise teenaged girls find each other from half the world away. But in this time when the digital and the physical are still kept at a distance, what does it mean to fall in love through a screen?
• TURN OFF THE MACHINES
  Joshua Sims
  A small toy elephant whose trunk is stitched to his chest wakes up in an abandoned library in an abstract, crumbling world. His task is simple: turn off six mysterious, failing machines. Each machine, however, is fiercely defended by its caretaker…
• I'LL BE FINE
  Jeeti Singh
  Trapped in a bathroom, hounded by her inner demons, a woman thinks back to the mother she lost to suicide years ago. So begins a life-spanning journey through time, from the history shared between mother and daughter and the future she faces without her.
• SEA FRET
  Savannah Storm
  After graduating from university, Rina moves home to the Yorkshire coast, burned out and directionless. Inspired by some brave wintertime swimmers, she joins an unexpected community and discovers a new love of the freezing cold North Sea.
• FOR SURVIVAL
  Ella Stovell
  Two isolated strangers meet in an Edinburgh graveyard on Halloween. One happens to be a vampire. They strike up an unlikely friendship, a much-needed level of vulnerability and connection. So, who else needs help in the city's supernatural underbelly?
• ANYWHERE
  Qianyu Wang
  When bands go on tour, they explore so many new places – and so do the fans that follow them. This is the personal account of one very devoted fan, a narrative of personal growth woven between more than 50 concerts across the UK.
• DOES THAT MEAN I CAN DO ANYTHING
  Qianyu Wang
  After two years of uncertainty, a chance night at the theatre inspires the author to seek out an autism diagnosis. That leads to emails, phone calls, appointments, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting… And then, what next?
• CARCINISATION
  Jess Winton
  A lone traveller journeys north searching for a hermit who can grant any wish. In exchange for four gifts, his wish is granted: he becomes a crab. But what are these four gifts, and what stories come with them?
• LAPIN BLEU
  Lottie Withers
  In this memoir, for a child diagnosed with the rare genetic disorder 22q11 – A.K.A. DiGeorge Syndrome – her closest companion is the rabbit named Lapin Bleu. When her companion vanishes in the hospital, the loss takes its toll…

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