The 2022 GLAAD Media Awards awarded DC's Crush & Lobo with Outstanding Comic Book, while Oni Press' Cheer Up! won Outstanding Graphic Novel.
The thirty-third annual GLAAD Media Awards just took place and the two big LGBTQ+ comic winners of the night were Crush & Lobo from DC Comics and Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms from Oni Press. While Crush & Lobo won the "Outstanding Comic Book" award, Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms won the first ever prize for "Outstanding Graphic Novel."
The GLAAD Media Awards have been using the "Outstanding Comic Book" award to acknowledge comics that “honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues" since 1992, when The Flash by William Messner-Loebs won for the first time. In 2022, both Crush & Lobo and Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms were up against some truly impressive competition, including Superman: Son of Kal-El, The Girl From the Sea, DC Pride Anthology, Harley Quinn, and other LGBTQ+ focused comics that won acclaim and praise.
Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms from Oni Press is written by Crystal Frasier, the creator of acclaimed webcomic Venus Envy, with art by Val Wise and lettering by Oscar O. Jupiter, which follows two disconnected queer friends in their senior year of high school who find their ways back to each other. Crystal Frasier sent a tweet out congratulating her team on the big win, saying that everyone, "...really put their souls into making this book a reality." The other big comic winner of the night was Crush & Lobo from DC Comics, written by Mariko Tamaki with art by Amancay Nahuelpan, colors by Tamra Bonvillain, and letters by Ariana Maher, which follows the adventures of Crush, a lesbian half-alien who leaves the Teen Titans and ends up partnering with her problematic and endlessly hilarious father Lobo. Andrea Shea, an editor at DC Comics that worked on Crush & Lobo, tweeted her excited congratulations to her team, calling them all "impossibly talented."
Both series are beautifully written and drawn stories that center queer characters. Their focus on trans identity, queerness in relationship to family, and the pressures put on young women are all prescient and important themes, and it is encouraging that GLAAD is recognizing how monumental these stories are, telling the stories of those who have historically been silenced. Not only that but the creators of these two, now award-winning comics, are part of the LGBTQ+ community, so these recognitions are not just highlighting the stories of queer characters, but also uplifting the voices of actual queer people.
There were many amazing comics nominated in both categories, making it even more impressive that these two beat out more established characters and properties to win in their categories. Among the movies, series, music, and games, the GLAAD Media Awards have recognized the graphic novels Crush & Lobo from DC Comics and Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms from Oni Press, hopefully drawing further attention to these fantastic - and now award-winning - LGBTQ+ stories.
Source: Andrea Shea, Crystal Frasier
