The Jellyfish by Boum has won a remarkable string of prizes in the recent weeks, sweeping the Eisner, Graphic Medicine, Lynd Ward, and Doug Wright Awards!
Over the weekend at San Diego Comic Con, The Jellyfish took home the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material, a first for Pow Pow Press and the first time a Quebec author has won this prize! This win at the “Oscars of comics” marks a major step for the recognition of not only Boum’s talent but also of the incredible comics coming out of Montreal in general. As we always say, Montreal truly has the best comics scene in the world (another Montreal cartoonist, Joshua Barkman, took home a trophy in the category of Best Webcomic!), and Pow Pow is proud to be a key part of this community.
Just a few days prior, The Jellyfish won the Graphic Medicine Award for Best Long Form Comic. This award focuses on the important genre of graphic medicine, where comics tackle illness, health, and disability in ways that engage readers in new ways. The Jellyfish sheds light on “invisible disabilities” in a style that GMIC reviewer Martha Cornog described as “a poignant portrayal that entertains while eliciting empathy from the reader.”
The Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize recognized The Jellyfish as an Honor Book this year, with the jury noting “This graphic novel truly capitalizes on the affordances of the graphic genre… Boum creates an impressive visual work infused within a quiet, easy read and a focus that makes the story relatable.”
And at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival in June, Boum won The Nipper at the Doug Wright Awards, recognizing her as an “Emerging Talent” to watch. The Jellyfish was also nominated in the Best Book category.
This is a truly remarkable run of awards, making The Jellyfish one of (if not THE) most celebrated graphic novels of 2024. It is particularly notable that Boum, while well-known in the Montreal comics scene (as she quipped in her acceptance speech at the Doug Wright Awards, “I’m old news in Quebec”), is truly breaking through into the US market and finding new readers in English. In addition to these recent award wins, The Jellyfish was also featured on best of the year lists from the American Library Association, New York Public Library, the Comics Beat, and more!
We couldn’t be prouder of Boum, and congratulations are also due to translators Robin Lang and Helghe Dascher, without whom this project couldn’t have seen the light of day.
