It’s finally time to announce the winners for our 2023 Sequential Magazine Awards sponsored by Strange Adventures Comics & Curiosities in Halifax NS, Dartmouth NS & Fredericton NB. The Sequential Magazine Awards, originating in 2017, are fan voted awards organized by Sequential Magazine to allow Canadian comic fans to show their appreciation for their favourite local indie comics and creators as well as discover more great Canadian made comics.
Below are the names of this year’s winners, runners up and 3rd place finishers for comics published in 2023 and their acceptance quotes. Winners were entirely chosen by your awards
For more information on our nominees see our previous post here
Best Comic Book
WINNER: Total Party Killer, by David Yu
Runner Up: Seeds of Spring #5 We’ll Never Be Alone, by Chris Coquard & Sacha Ravenda
3rd Place : Peregrines: Hunter’s Moon by Chris Sanagan & Jason
Total Party Killer
I’m so honoured that Total Party Killer has been chosen alongside such amazing Canadian comics! Thank you to the community for their support, to Scout Comics for helping me make the book the best it could be, and to my wife Shen who has been with me every step of the way. – David Yu
No one told Verity the Adventuring Intern that her first quest would be this bloody. Prematurely promoted after her predecessor’s untimely demise, Verity is perpetually surrounded by mayhem, mutilation, and murder. Her cruel companions, lead by the infamous Captain Bastion, offer little sympathy to the fledgling adventurer. Tasked with hunting the primordial dragon Gridda, Verity has to ask herself one simple question – how badly does she really want this job?
by David Yu
Best Graphic Novel
WINNER: Skull Cat and the Curious Castle, Book 1 by Norman Shurtliff
Runner Up: Illümon: Seven Rays of the Sun, Book 1 by Shawn Daley
3rd Place : Secrets of Jarrow by Bill Slavin
Skull Cat and the Curious Castle, Book 1
Wow! A huge thank you to everyone that voted for our favorite scaredy cat. Thank you for naming Skull Cat and the Curious Castle the best graphic novel. You are the best fans in the world! – Norman Shurtliff
It’s Scully Catterson’s first day as the new garden-keeper at a spooky castle…
But when everyone goes missing, is he brave enough to become a hero?
Even though the castle is an eerie place, full of dark secrets, Scully is excited to start his new job and prove himself to be a great gardener. But wait a minute… what happened to all his co-workers?
Norman Shurtliff – author, artist, creator
Best Graphic Novel Anthology
WINNER: The 99
Cover of Darkness: Origins
The 99
We did it! We made the comics! We made the book! We won the award! We couldn’t have done it without you, so THE 99 artists want to thank our readers, Sequential Magazine, and Strange Adventures (Hallifax) for making this happen. THANK YOU x 99 ! – David Daneman
THE 99 is a 104-page, full-color collection of 99 web cartoonists contributing their best / favorite comics strips. In addition to the comics, the book contains a brief (humorous) biographical section about each artist, a foreword, and an afterword. For this edition, Tommy Siegel (The New Yorker) will be writing the foreword.
David Daneman – Editor
Best Webcomic
WINNER: Yokoka’s Quest by Chris Hyacinth Rivers
Runner Up: Ghost Junk Sickness by Kristen Lee & Laura Lee
3rd Place : The Constant Star by Lucas Green & Steve Moody
Yokoka’s Quest
Wait, I actually won? Thank you SO much to everyone who took the time to vote Yokoka’s Quest for best webcomic, I don’t have the words to fully express how awesome that is. Let’s all keep loving and supporting indie comics! – Chris Hyacinth Rivers
For as far as she can remember, Yokoka’s lived in the same old boring forest. It’s not that she’s lonely- she has a lot of siblings to play with- but she has dreams, a desire for adventure! What would happen, if she walked without stopping? How far could she go? What would she see?
Eyes filled with curiosity and excitement, she goes out into the unknown, a land filled with ferocious beasts and elemental magic, discovering things existing even beyond the limits of her imagination. What’s on the other side of the journey? We’ll just have to see when we get there!
Chris Hyacinth Rivers (everything)
Favourite Writer
WINNER: D.A. Stewart
Runner Up: Mark Bertolini
3rd Place : George Michail
D.A. Stewart (he/him)
To receive the nomination was a thrill, but this blows me away! A shout out to my fellow nominees in this category, and my heartfelt thanks to Sandy Carruthers and Sandstone Comics for making Dark Sanctuary a reality, to Strange Adventures Comics and Curiosities and to Sequential Magazine for shining a light on comics and their creators, and to all the folks who voted. Amazing!
A graduate of the Film & TV Production program at Humber College in Toronto, D.A. Stewart got his start in professional writing with the first issue of Prince Edward Island’s arts and entertainment monthly, “The Buzz”. Since then, he’s written for publications and websites both in Canada and internationally. In the early 2000s, D.A.’s movie review comic strip, “And Yet I Blame Hollywood”, was adapted and animated for national broadcast on CBC-TV, with each two-minute episode written by Stewart. A copywriter at Graphcom, a web and advertising house in PEI, D.A. has created, edited and contributed to the multi-author short horror story collection “Fear from a Small Place”, and has written and published a solo collection of short horror fiction entitled “Monster Man”. “Dark Sanctuary”, co-created with artist Sandy Carruthers, is his first foray into writing for serial comics.
Favourite Artist
WINNER: Sandy Carruthers
Runner Up: Steph Dumais
3rd Place: Michael Derrah
Sandy Carruthers (he/him)
Wow! What an honor to win this award again from you fine folk at Sequential Magazine. It’s also a true honor to be recognised by both my peers and the public for the work I’ve been doing (in particular) these past five years with Sandstone Comics. I still find sequential art a fascinating process, and still have much to learn and grow with, but I’m happy to be able to do it for all of you fine folk. Here’s to many more creations!
Sandy Carruthers is a Canadian artist who owns Sandstone Comics since 2018. He is best known for his past comic book work in Men in Black for Malibu Graphics, but currently publishes both his own and other Maritime creators work. His most recent work was Dark Sanctuary: a 4 part series written by D.A. Stewart, that wrapped up in 2023. Sandy lives in Prince Edward Island, Canada with his wife Holly and three cats.
Favourite Cartoonist (Writer and Artist)
WINNER: Kate Phillips
Runner Up: Shawn Daley
3rd Place : Jeff Martin
Kate Phillips (she/they)
I’m extremely appreciative of the support I’ve had from my wife, family and friends that allow me to continue making comics. I get to do what I love every day, and I’m happy that my work resonates with people!
Kate Phillips is an illustrator and comic artist in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. Her first comic, High Tide, was featured in Sequential Magazine and Pipe Dream Comics, and since then she’s been exploring digital and traditional comic making to tell fiction and non-fiction stories through a Queer, East Coast lens. Though her characters are often expressive and playful, Kate enjoys pushing at the border where silly intersects serious. She is interested in making the mundane into the uncanny, or narratives where the resolution may be left to interpretation. Kate’s most recent comic, The Usual, is inspired by her time as a barista pouring lattes and daydreaming.
Favourite Colourist
WINNER: Shawn Daley
Runner Up: Kate Phillips
3rd Place : Donovan Yaciuk
Shawn Daley (he/him)
Who knew that learning how to paint because I couldn’t afford to hire a colourist would pay off? But really—it’s an honour to receive this award, and a pleasure to paint for everyone who reads my work. Thank you!
Shawn Daley is a cartoonist and chiptunist from Toronto, and has spent the last decade self-publishing comics while writing music for independent game developers. His work includes Illümon, Better Place, TerraQuill, The Bridgebuilder’s Creed, Samurai Grandpa and OGRE, and he’s contributed to TMNT, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and a number of other published titles. It’s not unusual to see him trading art for boxes of cereal at conventions.
Favourite Letterer
WINNER: Lyndon Radchenka
Runner Up: Daniel S. Barrick
3rd Place : Michael McAdam
Lyndon Radchenka (he/him)
Thank you so much to Sequential Magazine for hosting these awards, and everyone who took the time to vote! Canada has such a rich deposit of independent comics talent that I hope you discovered something new to read through the process of voting. Support an indie comic-maker and consider ordering a book from someone you’ve never heard of before!
Lyndon Radchenka is a writer, award-winning letterer, and (sometimes, but not-right-now) lawyer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. You may have read his words, seen his letters, or watched him act.
He’s written Infinite Universe, What Will Not Last, The Laundrymen, and There Was Another Life. As a comics letterer, Lyndon has put his name to too many projects to list, but you may have seen his work in The Eye Collector, alongside Jonathan Ball and G.M.B. Chomichuk. In 2020 he won the Sequential Magazine Award for “Favourite Letterer.”
In his free time, Lyndon enjoys not having free time.