The organizers of the 2005 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning are pleased to announce Halifax's Bryan Lee O’Malley and Guelph, Ont.'s Seth as the winners of it inaugural awards.
The awards were handed out by Phyllis Thomas-Wright, Doug Wright's widow, in front of a standing-room-only crowd in Toronto on Sat. May 28.
O’Malley, a 26-year-old Ontario native, was awarded the Best Emerging Talent trophy for his graphic novel Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (ONI Press). The manga-inflected romance focuses on its 23-year-old protagonist as he weaves his way in and out of love in modern day Toronto.
Seth's Clyde Fans: Book One (Drawn & Quarterly Books) garnered The Wright award for Best Book of 2004. The graphic novel is the first of a two-part look at the lives of two brothers who run a fan store in mid-20th century Toronto. Both award winners were on hand to accept their trophies.
The winners were selected by a jury that included cartoonist Chester Brown (creator of the Louis Riel graphic novel), journalist Rebecca Caldwell, broadcaster Nora Young, film director Jerry Ciccoritti and actor/director Don McKellar.
The award was named in honour of Doug Wright (1917-1983), whose fondly-remembered comic strips, Nipper/Doug Wright's Family ran in Canadian newspapers and magazines for 32 years starting in the 1940s to the early 1980s. Wrights family, which included his widow Phyllis and his three sons, and grandchildren, were in attendance at the ceremony which took place as part of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.
The ceremony was also the occasion for the induction of the first four names into “The Giants of the North”, a Canadian cartooning Hall of Fame established by the Doug Wright Award organizing committee. The inaugural inductees were: J.W. Bengough (1851-1923), Albéric Bourgeois (1876-1962), Peter Whalley (b. 1921) and Doug Wright (1917-1983).
Information on Doug Wright can be found at our website:
http://www.time-cat.com/wright.html
Information on the other "Giants of the North" can be found here:
http://www.time-cat.com/giantsofthenorth.html
For more information on the awards, including pictures of the trophy, please visit our website: http://www.time-cat.com/wrights.html
