'I was in shock!': all the winners of our graphic short story prize interviewed

On the 10th anniversary of the Observer/Cape/Comica graphic short story prize, we talk to previous prizewinners from Isabel Greenberg to Julian Hanshaw, and to 2017’s star, Tor Freeman

No one can remember exactly how, 10 years ago, we came to start the graphic short story prize. Naturally, I would love to take the credit. But in truth, the idea must have come originally from Dan Franklin of Jonathan Cape, publisher of the UK’s most prominent list of graphic novels.

In 2007, comics were finally beginning to take off in Britain: the animated film of Marjane Satrapi’s memoir Persepolis was just about to be released; Guy Delisle’s travelogue, Burma Chronicles, and Rutu Modan’s novel Exit Wounds, set in Tel Aviv during a period of bomb attacks, had both been critical hits.

Nevertheless, much of the best work still came either from the US, or from France, where bandes dessinées were – and are – such a big deal (the Angoulême international comics festival, attended by 200,000 people every year, has been running since 1974). Franklin’s proposition was that the Observer New Review and Cape would work together to establish a competition to find new British talent. Not too long after this, having secured further support from Comica, the comics festival run by Paul Gravett, we began.

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It was clear immediately that our idea had worked: dozens of brilliant but hitherto unpublished cartoonists had been inspired to produce for our delectation some seriously good work (we usually receive around 250 entries). In the years since, we have discovered some remarkable talents, several of whom have gone on to secure publishing deals. Isabel Greenberg, Fumio Obata, Joff Winterhart… the list goes on (and two of the three I’ve just mentioned were, incredibly, only runners-up).

Which brings me to 2017. Our guest judges this year were Stephen The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil Collins, a former winner of the prize, and Philip Pullman, the acclaimed novelist (and the author of the comic book, The Adventures of John Blake). Heartfelt thanks to them both.

As always, we read some great stories. In the end, though, it was If You’re So Wise, How Come You’re Dead? by Tor Freeman, a children’s book illustrator, that stood out – because who doesn’t remember, as a child, being nagged to do their piano practice/homework/revision? (Freeman’s story, in which a portrait of Frida Kahlo and a bust of Beethoven have speaking roles, is – topically – about expertise and the effort it involves.)

The 2017 runner-up is Emily Jones (pen name Emilybob), who works as a specialist teaching assistant in Cardiff, for her story Dennis and June, in which she ponders identity politics and the future of the planet to hilarious effect (in a world in which all humans are now vegans, here are cows that “sell themselves” like prostitutes in teabag-strewn alleys to old people who still crave the taste of milk).

Pleasingly, both women were inspired to enter by former prizewinners (Freeman is a fan of Alexis Deacon, and Jones of Stephen Collins). Both, too, hope to continue with comics in the future. “I’m elated,” says Jones. “Since I entered, I don’t think a day has gone by without me dreaming about what it would be like even to be on the shortlist. To have complete strangers recognise your work is just incredible.”

• Read previous years’ winning entries here

Emily Haworth-Booth

Haworth-Booth lives in London and won in 2013 with Colonic, which was about her having colonic irrigation. It was based on an extract from a diary that Haworth-Booth kept of her recovery from ME.

What were you doing career-wise before you entered the competition?
I was teaching comics and graphic novels at the Royal Drawing School. When I’m encouraging students to make personal stories, to share things from their lives, I feel that I can say, “Well, a very personal story about my colon was splashed all over the Observer, so you’ve got no excuse not to have a go, at least”.

What effect did the competition have?
I left my day job, though kept on teaching in the evenings, and went on to do an MA in children’s book illustration. I also ended up doing comics workshops at St George’s and UCL medical schools for patients and doctors. The projects were to do with public and patient engagement, and helping medical students to develop empathy. I think comics are a brilliant medium for that.

Tell me about the graphic novel you’re writing now.
It’s about ME and burnout and activism and climate change, and lots of stuff that doesn’t sound very funny, though I’m trying to make it funny. I’ve been trying to find links between ME and climate change. They’re both to do with unsustainable lifestyles and not listening, and being numb to what’s going on in the world. I’ve also just signed a three-picture book deal with Pavilion Children’s Books.

Which graphic novels have impressed you recently?
I really love Judith Vanistendael – she’s Flemish, and she does the most beautiful drawing, watercolours, and amazing storytelling. My favourite of her books is When David Lost His Voice, which is a book about cancer. It sounds depressing, but it’s really uplifting and beautiful. There’s a lot of interesting work by women coming out at the moment, and a lot of interesting work about medical experience, like Rachael Ball’s The Inflatable Woman and Paula Knight’s The Facts of Life.

Has the perception of graphic novels changed since you won?
I have noticed that a lot more women are signing up to my classes than when I first started teaching in 2010. I’m not sure if that reflects a wider interest of women in the form in the UK in general – I hope it does. Things like Laydeez Do Comics, which is a great monthly event in London where artists discuss their work and present comics, have really helped get more women involved. And I have noticed in general that the graphic novel sections in bookshops have got much bigger. ED

Alexis Deacon

A children’s author and illustrator, Deacon won in 2014 with The River which, he says, “was about three children playing on a riverbank. It had a 1920s vibe to it”. He lives in London and since winning the competition has published two graphic novels.

Had you done much comics writing before entering?
No, my background was in children’s picture book illustration. I had never written a graphic novel but I had done some three- or four-page comics before, so the format for the competition wasn’t entirely new.

When you won, did it have any tangible effect on your career?
Since then I’ve published two graphic novels – the second came out in September – so something must have gone right. They’re part of a trilogy of connected books called Geis, about an evil sorceress who is trying to seize power in a small town.

Is illustrating still what pays the bills?
Yeah, it certainly pays more than comics, which have a very depressing hourly rate. I also teach in a few places, primarily Anglia Ruskin University, on their MA course in children’s books and illustration.

What keeps you doing it if the pay is so bad?
Well… there’s nothing quite like it. It’s like being fully in control of your own film production. You’re doing all the costumes, set design, script, lighting. You’re seeing your thoughts made flesh.

What have you enjoyed recently?
I am addicted to a series called The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf. We have this fascination with the Arab world and its impact on our culture, but what makes The Arab of the Future interesting is the specific harmony involved and the constellation of characters that make up the family. It’s really well written and observed.

Do you think the graphic novel form is still in its infancy?
It still has so much that could be done. There are countries that have really embraced it: France, Japan, America and Canada. The UK has only a few voices. I’m sure there is a lot ahead. KF

Julian Hanshaw

An animator by training, Hanshaw won in 2008 with Sand Dunes & Sonic Booms, which is set near to where he lives in Rye, East Sussex. It’s a haunting seaside tale inspired by one of the coast’s sound mirrors. He has since published three graphic novels.

When did you become interested in comics?
I got interested in the US underground stuff when I was at art school, stuff like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. I went into animation for 13 years, then fell out of love with it and picked up comics so that I could become more of an auteur than a studio assistant. That was around 2007.

Not long before the competition…
It was a quick turnaround. I had been out to Vietnam and started my first graphic novel, The Art of Pho. After the award, I went back out to Vietnam to finish my book and repitch it to Jonathan Cape. The competition gave me a little ego-tickle, but it was still a number of years before Pho came out. I’ve published two more books since then, including Tim Ginger, which was nominated for a British Comics award, and now I’m working on my fourth book, Cloud Hotel, for Top Shelf. I also do lots of illustrations for the Pho restaurant chain – that’s my bread and butter.

So do the graphic novels feel like a labour of love?
They do. If you work out your page rate against your advance, it sinks below the minimum wage at times. It really is a labour of love, unless you can sell those film rights or luck out with lots of translations.

What keeps you going?
I think the auteur nature of it, having total control of everything – I don’t have producers and designers telling me what to do. And then you look around and, month after month, the bar is being raised and I want to be a part of that. KF

Matthew Dooley

Dooley won in 2016 with Colin Turnbull: A Tall Story, about a man who longs to win Lancashire’s Tallest Milkman competition. A classics graduate who works for parliament’s education service, Dooley has started his first graphic novel.

Why did you decide to enter the competition?
I remember seeing the winning entries the first year and thinking, Oh, I should do that. I don’t have any formal art background and hadn’t written a comic before. I entered a couple of times and heard nothing back, and then for two years on the trot I got down to the last eight, and then last year won it. It was a gradual improvement.

What effect did it have on your career?
Once I’d won it, I thought I’d take a punt and go part-time at work and see what happened. I work for the Houses of Parliament doing education stuff. We run tours and workshops for visiting school groups. I pitched an idea to Jonathan Cape and, excitingly, I’m doing a book with them. It’s a black comedy about two ice-cream men who are rivals and have a patch war.

What is distinctive about the graphic story form?
It rewards brevity and efficiency, and I like that. There’s a cartoonist, Seth, who said that comics aren’t literature plus art, they’re graphic design plus poetry, and I think that’s absolutely true.

Which graphic novelists have impressed you recently?
I really liked Hostage by Guy DeLisle. I genuinely was turning the pages quicker and quicker and quicker as it got continually more exciting.

Aside from graphic novels, where else do you seek inspiration?
I would say more than anything else it would be sitcoms. There is as much Father Ted in my comics as any other comic. I do try to make comics that are at least passably funny.

What’s your favourite graphic novel?
Probably Tom Gauld’s Goliath. I always like a clever retelling of a well-known story and this is as good as it gets. I particularly love the portrayal of Goliath as a reluctant soldier who is far happier doing admin. ED

Isabel Greenberg

Shortly after graduating from an illustration course at Brighton University, Greenberg won in 2011 with Love in a Very Cold Climate in which, she says, “a man from the north pole travels to the south pole and falls in love with a woman there, but due to the world’s magnetic field he can’t touch her. So they are forced to always stay two feet apart from each other”. Her bestselling debut graphic novel, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, was published in 2013. She lives in London.

You won in 2011, but it wasn’t the first year you’d entered the competition…
No, I’d entered twice before and had been a runner-up once. The year I won, I really thought about how you can tell a story in four pages. It’s tough to achieve a satisfying plot arc and develop characters in such a short space.

Had you always wanted to write graphic novels?
Yes, but I didn’t think it was a viable career. But the competition has been amazing for me – I got an agent and a graphic novel deal off the back of it.

What’s happened since you won?
My first graphic novel, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, came out in 2013. After that I started getting more work – I do quite a lot of children’s illustration now. The second graphic novel, One Hundred Nights of Hero, came out last year. And I’ve just started working on a new one. It’s about childhood imaginary worlds.

Since you won, have perceptions of graphic novels changed?
The market has expanded, but it’s still not treated with anywhere as much respect as novels are. Often it’s treated like a genre rather than a medium – all graphic novels are bundled together as if they’re the same thing, when in fact you’ve got autobiography, history, crime and so on. It would help if schools had graphic novels on their curriculum, and literary prizes would feature them more often. I don’t think they should be seen as just books with pictures.

Do you read a lot of new graphic novels?
I recently read the new Joff Winterhart book, Driving Short Distances. It’s a really deadpan, tragic comedy, and very funny. I think my favourite of last year was Saving Grace by Grace Wilson – the story of an art school graduate trying to make it in London and survive the exorbitant rental market here, so obviously it spoke to me on some level!

What’s your favourite graphic novel?
It’s hard to pick a favourite. But one I’m very keen on is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It’s a bit of an obvious choice, but one that’s very important to me as it was one of the reasons I decided to make comics. KF

Catherine Brighton

Brighton won in 2007, the first year of the prize, with Away in a Manger, which she says is about “two cheeky London girls who do something they shouldn’t, which is go into an old gentleman’s apartment”. A former illustrator for newspapers and journals, and the author of several children’s books, she lives in London and is working on her first full-length graphic novel.

When you entered was it your first time writing a graphic story?
I had done children’s picture books before, and had just finished one on Buster Keaton, but I’d never done a graphic novel or anything with bubbles coming out of people’s mouths. I was ready to do something different.

What effect did winning the competition have on your career?
I already had an idea for a book, so I just kept going. I was a bit shocked when I saw how long ago your competition was, because I’m still working on it!

Can you tell me a bit about the book?
It takes place in Dayton, Ohio, in 1903. It’s about a kid whose new stepfather buys him a Brownie camera. He goes off round Dayton, taking sneaky pictures of people, and then he starts spying on a couple of men who live on the opposite side of his street. They’ve got a great big work shed at the back, and it turns out that these are the Wright brothers, and they’re inventing powered flight. I’m enjoying it.

What’s your favourite graphic novel?
Little Nemo 1905-1914 by Winsor McCay. He produced these virtuosic images once a week, playing with perspective, scale, architecture and rumbustious people and creatures. It’s humiliating, it tempts me to give up. ED

Richard Woods

An early-age educator from Merseyside, Woods won in 2015 with The Giants of Football, which was inspired by Sepp Blatter, Fifa and “the farce of the World Cup going to Qatar”. In his version of events, aliens are making a bid to host the World Cup.

Had you written graphic stories before?
I’ve taught comics for over a decade at the local community college and I’ve done lots of kids’ workshops, lots of small-press stuff. But nothing on a grander scale.

Did winning the prize open any doors for you?
Lots of people got in touch and some small-press stuff I did 20 years ago is being resurrected. I’m working on several books. They’re all about monsters: one is based on Frankenstein, one’s a zombie story, another is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I hope they’ll be published some day but I’m doing this because I want to do it.

What appeals to you about comics?
People compare comics to film storyboards, but they’re completely different. Storyboards are a blueprint to which sound and motion are added. Comics have a different grammar. Absence is important: you can have an empty panel and people can read into it what they like. And you have the space between panels, which is where everything really happens – that’s where the imagination takes over.

Are comics in decent shape in 2017?
Could be better. The audience is too narrow, it’s too male, it’s too much of a certain age.

What’s your favourite graphic novel?
Two I’m currently enamoured of are Monkey Subdues the White Bone Demon, beautifully drawn by Chao Hung-pen and Chien Hsiao-tai, and Moebius’s elegant and understated Sur l’Etoile. A perennial favourite though is The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane: Delirius; I’ve never tired of it in 40 years. KF

Corban Wilkin

After studying illustration at Middlesex University, Wilkin won in 2012 with But I Can’t, about two girls obsessed with alien abductions. He lives in London.

What attracts you to the graphic story form?
It all came from finding graphic novels in the library when I was a teenager and going: “Wow this is great, why haven’t I heard about this before?” It’s hard to do something original in prose now, but with words and pictures and design elements, it felt like there were so many untapped possibilities.

What effect did winning the prize have on your career?
Since then I’ve done a few science comics and I’ve worked on a graphic novel with the writer Greg Neri that’s on its way to being published. It’s about a trainer in the American horse‑racing industry who kidnaps a horse to stop it from being raced to death and goes on the run, her and the horse.

What was the main influence when you were starting out?
Blankets by Craig Thompson was a pretty big one, because of the way it was drawn – it’s more like painting than comics. I realised not all comics have to look like Batman, they can be more arty-farty. Another big influence was Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It breaks down the whole process, what comics are and how they work, and argues that they’re actually a distinct and unique form of communication, not just writing with pictures, but a language in themselves.

What’s your favourite graphic novel?
Building Stories by Chris Ware. There aren’t many things I’d call masterpieces, but that is. It follows the tenants in an old building in Chicago that’s being converted into apartments, and in particular it follows one young woman throughout her whole life, jumping around in time, tracking major events but also insignificant ones. He sets the benchmark for what comics can do. KF

Vivien McDermid

McDermid’s colourful story about coping with new motherhood, Paint, won in 2009. A semi-autobiographical tale, it was created in snatched moments when her baby was napping or at nursery. McDermid, a fashion design graduate, lives in Edinburgh.

What drew you to the prize?
I’ve never been a huge comic buff, but I’d been reading a bit of Joe Sacco, Chris Ware and Jon McNaught. McNaught has done a book called Dockwood – it’s very quiet, very visual and I think I was drawn to his work because it isn’t wordy. Then I just felt the need to tell a story. I’d started writing it before I even knew about the prize, and then my dad sent me a cutting saying “I just saw this in the Observer”. It fitted perfectly with what I was doing. It was luck, really.

Tell me about winning the competition.
I was in shock! We’d had quite a difficult few years with our first baby and the story came from that, from a very personal place, and I wasn’t expecting it to be out there. But winning was very strengthening, and has become a kind of beacon for me to look back to if I’m ever feeling wobbly about my work.

What have you been doing since you won?
Initially I spoke to Jonathan Cape about doing a graphic novel, but as it turns out, I just couldn’t find the time, and I felt like I was trying to fit what I had into the format of a graphic novel. So, I put that on hold, then I was pregnant with my second child and the next wave of chaos came. Recently I’ve been doing little paintings and working with clay at home, and bringing the children up. I also work at Garvald Edinburgh, an arts organisation for adults with learning disabilities. I love it.

Have your kids seen your winning entry?
My daughter is definitely aware of it – my sister has it framed in her kitchen. She kind of recognises that that was her, and I think that’s really nice. IC

Stephen Collins

Collins, a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, won in 2010 with In Room 208, the tale of a couple whose honeymoon is cut short by bad weather. On winning the prize Collins said his aim had been to create “a love story, but one that was ugly and a bit weird.” He lives in Welwyn Garden City and published his first graphic novel, the New York Times bestseller The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil, in 2013.

What do you remember about winning the prize?
I started writing it on my honeymoon. We were camping in the French Alps and it was really raining. I remember thinking, what would it be like if we never got up? That was the germ of the story. I wrote the rhyming script in a launderette in our campsite. I didn’t think it would win but it was a good challenge, and then it won, and it was brilliant.

Was that your first attempt at a graphic story?
I was an illustrator for seven years and I had done some cartoon strips for Prospect, but I’d never really done much longer stuff. I was looking for a bit of a change.

Did winning the competition have any effect on your career?
Yeah, I got interest from Jonathan Cape. I submitted an idea for a longer story and that turned into a graphic novel, The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil. Also, the Guardian asked me to do a strip for Weekend magazine, and I’ve been doing that ever since. So it had a lot of knock-ons. But one of the biggest was confidence.

What are you working on now?
My second graphic novel, which is taking a long time. It’ll be published in 2019. It’s quite an ambitious thing. It’s going very well, but we’ve had three children in the interim between my first and second graphic novel, which slows things down.

What’s your favourite graphic novel?
I remember sitting on a train out of King’s Cross in 2008, reading Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware for the first time, knowing that this book was going to change my life. It’s essentially a multigenerational tale of dads and lads, but it’s so much more than that – it must be the Great American Graphic Novel. KF

Tor Freeman

This year’s winner, with If You’re So Wise, How Come You’re Dead?, Freeman works as a children’s book illustrator (The Toucan Brothers, Digby Dog Delivers). She graduated from Kingston University with an art degree in 1999 and lives in London.

Have you always been into drawing comics?
They’re a fairly new thing for me: the last couple of years. I’ve been making my own, printing them and trying to sell them at comics fairs. But it hasn’t particularly gone anywhere until now.

Who are the cartoonists and comic makers who have influenced you?
When I was younger, I wanted to be a comic strip artist like Charles Schulz [Peanuts] or Bill Watterson [Calvin and Hobbes]. I love Pogo, by Walt Kelly, and [French cartoonist] Claire Bretécher. I love the movement in her figures. I read those when I was too young to understand about the sex in them.

What is it that appeals to you about the form of comics?
It’s weirdly hard to answer that question. I guess I’d say, with picture books you have to be so selective about the moments you choose to illustrate, whereas in comics you can show such a variety of expressions and movements. I love the potential for comedy that provides. It’s like being writer, director and actor of your own small films.

What do you hope to do with comics in the future?
I’d just love to do more – and to have people read them. I feel like winning this prize really might help with that. I’m so pleased. I didn’t expect it at all. It sounds cheesy, but when I heard, it felt like a dream. RC

Interviews by Killian Fox, Emily Dixon, Rachel Cooke and Imogen Carter

Contributor

Rachel Cooke

The GuardianTramp

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