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Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), the international showcase for cartoon art, is proud to announce that the second annual Tom Spurgeon Award will go to writer, translator and manga scholar Frederik L. Schodt.

The Spurgeon Award honors those who have made substantial contributions to the field of comics, but are not primarily cartoonists. The award is named after Tom Spurgeon, a writer, historian, and champion of comic arts who served as CXC’s founding executive director. The award is open to retailers, distributors, journalists, editors, publishers, and others. 

“Frederik Schodt’s 1983 book Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics was the first significant book to introduce English speakers to Japanese comics,” says Lucy Shelton Caswell, CXC co-founder and the founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “He also made major contributions to the field through his translations into English of such works as Astro Boy by Tezuka, Ghost in the Shell by Shirow and The Rose of Versailles by Ikeda.”

CXC Logo by Robyn Smith
Design by Hannah Donovan

Frederik L. Schodt is a pivotal figure who helped bring manga to the West by way of his translations, research and writing. Schodt had a close relationship with Osamu Tezuka, a cultural giant known as the “God of Manga.” Schodt translated Tezuka’s Astro Boy for US publication in 2002 and translated the 900+ page manga biography, The Osamu Tezuka Story, in 2016. Schodt’s translations of manga also include works such as Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama’s 1931 The Four Immigrants Manga, Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix (with Dadakai and Jared Cook) and Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy of novels. In recent years, along with Beth Cary, he has worked on translating collections of animator Hayao Miyazaki’s writings.

“The current boom in readership of all varieties of comics is indebted in part to the influx of young readers who were introduced to comics via manga,” says Caitlin McGurk, chair of CXC’s award committee. “This is traceable to Schodt’s efforts in introducing English speakers to Japanese comics.” 

His other best known works on manga include Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (1996), and The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution (2007).

“I have spent most of my life doing work related to currents of thought flowing between Japan and North America,” says Schodt, “With a particular interest in manga, writing about them, doing translations of what I consider worthy works, giving talks on manga, and interpreting for Japanese and North American artists.”

The inaugural Tom Spurgeon Award in 2021 went to three posthumous recipients due to pandemic concerns. The award went to Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News syndicate vice-president and director Mollie Slott; All-Negro Comics founder and publisher Orrin Evans; and Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson.

For Frederik L. Schodt’s bio, click here.

For all past CXC Award Winners, click here.

Festival organizers will have more information about the awards presentations and other programming in the coming months. Follow CXC on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) or check www.cartooncrossroadscolumbus.org for the latest. 

About Cartoon Crossroads Columbus

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) 2022 festival will run October 6th to 9th, the organization’s first fully in-person festival since 2019. CXC brings the global family of cartoon storytellers, comic makers, and animators together with the people who love and are inspired by cartoon art, and connects them in Columbus, Ohio.  

CXC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that draws together Columbus educational and arts organizations including the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus College of Art & Design, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Columbus Metropolitan Library.  The Laughing Ogre, GFC: Gateway Film Center, and Pop Culture Studies at Ohio State University.

Our CXC 2022 partner is AAEC: Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

The festival is generously supported by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, UBS, GoComics, GoComics, Columbus Dispatch / Dispatch.com, Ohio Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Orange Barrel Media, Seventh Son Brewing Co., WCBE, and CD 92.9 FM

CXC aims to provide an international showcase for the best of cartoon art in all its forms, including comics, animation, editorial cartoons, newspaper strips, and beyond, in a city that is a growing center of importance to comics and cartooning. The festival also focuses on helping the next generation of young talent develop careers that invigorate the industry for years to come.

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