The great Canadian cartoonist Seth devised and designed the award itself, which honours the best in non-traditional or experimental Canadian comics. As the audience heard, the award itself is a derby hat (or bowler depending on your take on these) that is based on the hat worn by the great Canadian comic strip character Pigskin Peters. Yes, that Pigskin Peters. He of the seminal Canadian comic strip Birdseye Center which was drawn from about 1920 until 1948 by Jimmy Frise (and, for 20 years after his death, by none other than Doug Wright himself).
Anyways - Julie Morstad won the inaugural P.P.A.A.N.N.C.C. for her fine, dark little book Milk Teeth and will soon be receiving a trim derby hat fit to her head. But, Seth being Seth, there's much more to it than that.
The award comes with a custom-made pin featuring Mr. Peters himself:
As well, it comes packed in a box decorated with custom stickers:
Which, once opened, features a Birdseye Center strip inside that gives the owner an idea of what kind of a guy Peters was:
And I didn't even get to talk about the plaque which features a chrome peg that you can use to display the hat for all to see. I probably went a little overboard in my appreciation of Seth's work on this at the event itself, but goddamn! That man never misses a detail!
When he suggested the award last year, I was personally a little puzzled by it. But when I saw the final result, I was instantly won over. Here's a full set of pics for the curious.
(Ceremony pics, and party pics to come!)
Later - Brad M.
