Awards
CXC bestows four awards each year to celebrate comics creators. The Master Cartoonist Award, the Transformative Work Award, the Emerging Talent Prize, and the Thomas Spurgeon Award.
Master Cartoonist Award
The Master Cartoonist Award recognizes significant and sustained professional artistic accomplishments of an individual.
2023: Daniel Clowes
2022: Keith Knight
2021: Shary Flenniken
2020: Diane Noomin
2019: P. Craig Russell
2018: Jeff Smith & Jim Woodring
2017: Kyle Baker
2016: Carol Tyler & Sergio Argones
2015: Bill Griffith
Transformative Work Award
The Transformative Work Award recognizes a work’s significant impact on the direction, quality, and expression within cartoon art.
2023: Smile, Raina Telgemeier
2022: Wimmen’s Comix, Lee Marrs & Trina Robbins
2021: Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
2020: March, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin & The Honorable John Lewis
2019: The Nib
2018: King-Cat Comics, John Porcellino
2017: Stuck Rubber Baby, Howard Cruse
2016: Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau
2015: RAW, Art Spiegelman & Françoise Mouly
Emerging Talent Prize
The Emerging Talent recognizes artistic accomplishment, potential growth, and the uniqueness of a cartoonist’s achievements early in their career. This award is accompanied by a $7500 no-strings-attached honoraria to the creator. Annual exhibitors and invited special guests are eligible for consideration.
2023: Evan Salazar
2022: Victoria Douglas
2021: Robyn Smith
2020: Gabby Metzler
2019: Carta Monir
2018: Keren Katz
2017: Kat Fajardo
2016: K Czap
2015: Katie Skelly
Tom Spurgeon Award
The award is to honor individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field but are not primarily cartoonists. After an initial slate of posthumous awards, CXC now awards an individual annually and invites them to the festival. The award is named after CXC’s founding executive director who died in 2019 and was a champion of the cartoon arts.
There are many moving and beautiful tributes to Tom on the internet, all of which speak powerfully to all he did for comics and for the various communities he called home, from his first home in Muncie to his final home in Columbus. The award was developed with his family to share our deepest love and gratitude to Tom for being the beating heart of CXC and for sharing his love of our community with the broader comics world. The award is to recognize other people with a similar passion for and effect on the world of comics.
2024: Annie Koyama
2023: Calvin Reid
2022: Frederik L. Schodt
2021: (Posthumous) Mollie Slott, Orrin Evans, and Kim Thompson
Special Guests
2023
- Derf Backderf
- Tauhid Bondia
- Shelly Bond
- Reaghan Buchanan
- Jessica Campbell
- Scott Chantler
- Brenda Chapman
- Daniel Clowes
- Keito Gaku
- Nicole Goux
- MS Harkness
- Mars Heyward
- Jannie Ho
- John Jennings
- Denis Kitchen
- Calvin Reid
- P Craig Russell
- Chase Schulte
- Joe Sutphin
- Raina Telgemeier
2022
- Vincent Alexander
- Paige Braddock
- Barbara Brandon-Croft
- Peter Gallagher
- Tom Gauld
- Laura Harrison
- Myisha Haynes
- Mathew Klickstein
- Keith Knight
- Maia Kobabe
- Trung Le Nguyen (Trungles)
- MariNaomi
- Lee Marrs
- Ingrid Ochoa
- Ed Piskor
- Trina Robbins
- Jim Rugg
- Frederik L. Schodt
- Maria Scrivan
- James Spooner
- Steenz
- James Sturm
- Ronald Wimberly
2021 (Hybrid Online/In Person)
- Graham Annable
- Alison Bechdel
- Chip Bok
- Jerry Craft
- Matthew Erman
- Shary Flenniken
- Roberta Gregory
- Jay Hosler
- Lora Innes
- Victoria Jamieson
- Derek Kirk Kim
- Patrick McDonnell
- Thierry Mornet
- Bryan Moss
- Hilary Price
- Jules Rivera
- Trina Robbins
- Rafael Rosado
- Jamila Rowser
- Chris Samnee
- Jeff Smith
- Robyn Smith
- Steenz
- Lisa Sterle
- Ben Towle
- Robert Triptow
- Lewis Trondheim
- Brian Walker
- Ronald Wimberly
- Bianca Xunise
2020 (Online)
- Derf Backderf
- Tauhid Bondia
- Shelly Bond
- Reaghan Buchanan
- Jessica Campbell
- Scott Chantler
- Brenda Chapman
- Daniel Clowes
- Keito Gaku
- Nicole Goux
- MS Harkness
- Mars Heyward
- Jannie Ho
- John Jennings
- Denis Kitchen
- Calvin Reid
- P Craig Russell
- Chase Schulte
- Joe Sutphin
- Raina Telgemeier
2019
- AAEC
- Natasha Alterici
- Ho Che Anderson
- Robb Armstrong
- Adebukola “Buki” Bodunrin
- Ezra Claytan Daniels
- MK Czerwiec
- Liana Fink
- Mary Fleener
- Jaime Hernandez
- Kevin Huizenga
- Hellen Jo
- Terri Libenson
- Rachel Lindsay
- Patrick McDonnell
- Mike Mignola
- Carta Monir
- Terry Moore
- The Nib (Matt Bors, Eleri Harris, Mattie Lubchansky)
- Dav Pilkey
- Hillary Price
- P Craig Russell
- Frank Santoro
- Jay Stephens
- Tom Tomorrow
- Georgia Webber
2018
- Darrin Bell
- Brian Michael Bendis
- Jessica Campbell
- Sally Cruikshank
- Michael Deforge
- Liana Fink
- Matt Fraction
- Kelly Gallagher
- Roberta Gregory
- Dustin Harbin
- Olivia Jaimes
- Lynn Johnston
- Kazu Kibuishi
- Annie Koyama
- Hartley Lin
- Liniers
- Jason Lutes
- Richie Pope
- Keiler Roberts
- Jeff Smith
- Ngozi Ukazu
- Noah Van Sciver
- Charles Vess
- Georgia Webber
- Kriota Willberg
- Jim Woodring
2017
- Derf Backderf
- Peter Bagge
- Kyle Baker
- Lili Carre
- Howard Cruse
- Kelly Sue DeConnick
- Kat Fajardo
- Emil Ferris
- Ann Marie Fleming
- Matt Fraction
- Kevin Huizenga
- Jarret J. Krosoczka
- David Mack
- Nilah MaGruder
- Mike Maihack
- Ann Nocenti
- Laura Park
- Mimi Pond
- Dana Simpson
- Chris Sprouse
- Leslie Stein
- Alexander Stewart
- Tille Walden
- Chris Ware
- Signe Wilkinson
- Connor Willumsen
- Judd Winnick
- Chip Zdarksy
2016
- Sergio Aragones
- Charles Burns
- John Canemaker
- Brandon Graham
- Julia Gfrörer
- Jay Hosler
- Ben Katchor
- Keith Knight
- Ed Koren
- Sacha Mardou
- Mark Osborne
- Stan Sakai
- Seth
- Raina Telgemeier
- Ann Telnaes
- Garry Trudeau
- Carol Tyler
- Ron Wimberly
- Skottie Young
2015
- Lalo Alcaraz
- Derf Backderf
- Kate Beaton
- Jerry Beck
- Grace Ellis
- Grace Griffith
- Jaime Hernandez
- Dylan Horrocks
- Francoise Mouly
- Rafael Rosado
- Katie Skelly
- Jeff Smith
- Art Spiegelman
- Craig Thompson