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Red Snow, Summit of the Gods Nominated for Ignatz Awards
posted on by Heather Skinner
America's Small Press Expo has announced the nominations for the 14th annual Ignatz Awards on Thursday. Red Snow by the late author Susumu Katsumata is nominated for Outstanding Anthology or Collection, and The Summit of the Gods Volume 1 by Baku Yumemakura and Jiro Taniguchi is nominated for Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Series.
The Ignatz Awards, which are named after the character in George Herriman's seminal comic Krazy Kat, recognize "outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning." A jury of cartoonists create a ballot every year, and then the attendees of Small Press Expo vote on the nominees. The winners will be announced in Bethesda on September 11. Last year, Hideo Azuma became the first creator from Japan to be honored with an Ignatz Award nomination for his autobiographical Disappearance Diary manga.
Red Snow is a collection of 10 gekiga (alternative manga) short stories, all of which are set in rural, pre-modern Japan and many of which feature elements of traditional folklore such as kokeshi (dolls), kappa (a supernatural creature), and tree spirits. Two years after Red Snow debuted in Japan, Katsumata passed away in 2007 — but not before he won the Grand Prize of the 35th Japanese Cartoonists' Association Awards in 2006 for Red Snow.
The Summit of the Gods is the story about Fukamachi, an avid wilderness photographer who discovers a link to the past in Kathmandu, Nepal. He finds a camera supposedly belonging to George Mallory, a mountaineer who went missing on Mt. Everest. After meeting Habu Joji, a well-known climber with a passionate drive for the mountain, the two set off to uncover a piece of lost history.
Drawn & Quarterly publishes Red Snow in North America, and Fanfare/Ponent Mon publishes The Summit of the Gods.
Source: Comics Beat
