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Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize

Stone Fruit
Book cover of Stone Fruit
Stone Fruit

Winner 

Author: Lee Lai
​Publisher: Fantagraphics

Celebratory Event with Lee Lai!
Wed, November 16, 2022
- View Recorded Event! -

Judges' Comments

How is it that something so sweet, wonderful, and delicious is also filled with hardness? This question animates Lee Lai’s empathetic exploration of love, intimacy, kinship, and care in Stone Fruit. Lai’s nuanced character and question-driven graphic novel sparingly uses line, text, and color. These choices bring a starkness to the story, but they also open spaces for readers to engage more deeply with the complexities around what family means. Dream-like Ink wash landscapes contrast with bodies that carry the marks of living and loving, just as the scenes of joyous monstrosity are foils for the traumas embedded in the lives of Bron, Ray, Amanda, and Nessie. Lee Lai’s Stone Fruit is one of those rare graphic novels where everything—story, text, images, style—comes together in full complement to create a memorable, moving experience for readers.

How to Pick a Fight
Book cover of How to Pick a Fight
How to Pick a Fight

Honor Book

Author: Lara Kaminoff
​Publisher: Nobrow

Judges' Comments

In How to Pick a Fight, Lara Kaminoff’s spunky and memorable characters take the page by storm. Jimmy Ruckus loves watching wrestling with his grandma and dreams of life in the ring, but it feels to Jimmy that his big, loud family has no space for his dreams. So Jimmy leaves to seek the amazing life he imagines. Kaminoff’s combination of bold lines, brilliant reds, chiaroscuro style, and energetic story explodes off the page and propels Jimmy and his exaggerated pompadour into readers’ hearts. Unlike many coming-of-age stories in which the protagonist returns to the familiar, Kaminoff’s story keeps propelling Jimmy forward, reminding us—no matter how impossible it seems— to see where our dreams take us.

 

 

No One Else
Book cover of No One Else
No One Else

Honor Book

Author: R. Kikuo Johnson
​Publisher: Fantagraphics

Judges' Comments

A brother, sister, and her son must figure out how to be a family again after the death of an elderly father in R. Kikuo Johnson’s No One Else. Johnson’s specificity in this slim, enigmatic graphic novel brings a poignancy to that loss and its impact: the work ID accidentally thrown in the garbage, the grandfather’s ashes under the sink, a runaway cat, and everyday Maui’s traffic lights and backyard parties. Johnson’s finely observed naturalism contrasts with expansive spreads filled with fierce, expressionistic oranges and thick blacks. These impactful images and economical text encourage readers to contemplate the question of what we might find within loss.