Posted in: Comics | Tagged: graphic novel, myriad

Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition Shortlist Announced

There are two graphic novel imprints called Myriad. Which seems quite apposite. One is from Vault Comics in the US and Myriad Editions is from Brighton in the UK, who have been around for a little longer. And Myriad Editions has been running their First Graphic Novel competition for some years now, and have published books by three previous competition winners Gareth Brookes (The Black Project, 2012), Jade Sarson (For the Love of God, Marie!, 2014), and Jenny Robins (Biscuits, 2018), to be published by Myriad in November 2020. Myriad has also gone on to publish six other books by shortlisted authors, as well as works by authors longlisted for the competition. Its latest book by Hannah Eaton, Blackwood, whose first graphic novel Naming Monsters was shortlisted in the inaugural competition in 2012, is Myriad's next graphic publication in September.

And they have just announced the new shortlist they will be voting on. With comics covering contemporary topics of online voyeurism, risky sex, dementia, suicide, racism, murder and selling the earth, chosen and decided by judges from the longlist over Zoom. The winner or winners will have the opportunity for the completed graphic novel published by Myriad, and 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 had to provide 15-30 pages of a graphic work-in-progress, fiction or non-fiction.

This year, the judges include cartoonist and GP Ian Williams, whose graphic novel The Bad Doctor was shortlisted in 2012; chef and contributor to Myriad bestseller New Daughters of Africa Zoe Adjonyoh, curator and chair of New Contemporaries Sacha Craddock, Director of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Director Julie Tait, and Myriad Creative Director, Corinne Pearlman. There were 118 entrants from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, over half from outside London, and over half by women (according to names). The winner will be revealed at an event online in October, as part of the 2020 Lakes International Comic Arts Festival, supporters of the competition since 2018. Here are the contenders:

Cyberman
Veronika Muchitsch
Ari lives in a small town in Finland, streaming his life online twenty-four hours, seven days a week. Non-fiction graphic novel about the transgressive act of online voyeurism.

Chillout
Ed Firth
What promises to be an indulgent orgy of hedonism turns into an uncomfortable confrontation. Interconnected queer stories taking place in London.

Everything I Ever Knew Is on Earth
Pietro Soldi
You walk into a bar and accidentally meet a stranger who tells you something unexpected: the deal is done, the Earth has been sold.

Black
Anthony Smith and Tobias Taitt
A dysfunctional family life, and a childhood spent mostly in care: Taitt's story touches on themes of class and race as he gravitates from care to crime.

Satin and Tat
Myfanwy Tristram
Ella returns to the fishing village where she spent her teen years, but can she address the emotional fallout that followed her boyfriend's suicide thirty years before?

Polar Vortex
Denise Dorrance
A daughter escorts her mother with dementia across the US Midwest during a harsh snowstorm, while placating her estranged sister and unwanted visits from The Grim Reaper.

Missing People
Pete Shearn
Brian would love to move from Morecambe. Becky, a successful professional, thinks otherwise. The couple rebuild their lives in the wake of a traumatising incident.

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