The winner of the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition 2020 was announced during LICAF Live.

The announcement took place at 3pm on Sunday 11 October 2020

Topical and contemporary issues – online voyeurism, risky sex, dementia, suicide, racism, murder and selling the Earth – dominate the shortlist for the competition and show that the graphic novel is very much alive and kicking in Lockdown 2020.

In all, there were a staggering 118 entrants from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, over half from outside London, and just over half with women’s names.

On the short list for the 2020 Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition are Denise Dorrance with Polar Vortex; Ed Firth with Chillout; Veronika Muchitsch with Cyberman; Pete Shearn with Missing People; Pietro Soldi with Everything I Ever Knew Is on Earth; Anthony Smith & Tobias Taitt with Black; and Myfanwy Tristram with Satin and Tat.

The competition offers the winner, or winners, the opportunity to have their completed graphic novel published by Myriad. Entrants were asked for 15-30 pages of a graphic work-in-progress, fiction or non-fiction.

This year, it was judged by Dr Ian Williams, author of The Bad Doctor and The Lady Doctor. and founder of Graphicmedicine.org; Sacha Craddock, independent art critic, writer and curator; Corinne Pearlman, creative director, Myriad Editions; Zoe Adjonyoh, award-winning chef, author of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen Cookbook and contributor to the New Daughters of Africa anthology; and Julie Tait, founder and director, Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

This is the fourth time Myriad has run the First Graphic Novel competition. The three previous competitions have provided a unique opportunity for creators to see their debut graphic novel in print, furthering Myriad’s mission to encourage and nurture new talent, and to provide opportunities for established artists who have not previously embarked upon a full-length work.

Myriad’s graphics list include the 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. The publisher’s latest book by Hannah Eaton, Blackwood, whose first graphic novel Naming Monsters was shortlisted in the inaugural competition in 2012, is available now.

More about the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition 2020 competition on the Myriad Editions website