Efter lidt tid i limbo er min anmeldelse af de to Ping-honorerede danske tegneserier, Det rette element og Lonely Journey, af hhv. Line Høj Høstrup og Ida Rørholm Davidsen blevet bragt i Information. Det skete i bogtillægget sidste uge, men du kan læse anmeldelsen online her, hvis du er subskribent.
Tag Archive for 'Ping-prisen'
This year, Danish comics culture is seeing the revival of the Ping Awards, an industry award last given back in the Nineties. Once a hall of fame prize, it is now awards cartoonists in five categories in the manner of the Angoulême Fauves. This year focuses on comics published in 2011, and five Danish comics have been selected in their particular category. Although I didn’t participate in the nomination process, I was involved in organizing the event, and was part of the jury that selected Rikke Bakman’s Glimt as Danish Comic of the Year. So I’m biased, but I can say immediately that it was very hard indeed to select a winner. Here are the five nominees — for my money not just the five best Danish comics of last year, but the strongest showing in Danish comics for a long time. Continue reading ‘Danish Comics of the Year 2011′
The Ping Awards gala last night? A success, no doubt about it. Sold out, full house, crowded and fun! The young event team had pulled out all the stops and were almost entirely stress-free. Things just worked.
Anyway, this was a major event in the small subculture that Danish comics, and one we hope will continue for many years. It was done on a shoestring budget and came off looking like, well, not like a million kroner, but really neat. And there was a real atmosphere of enthusiasm for comics, even from the media who have covered the event surprisingly soberly and smartly.
As for the Danish prize winners, they were remarkable not only for their quality, but also for what they tell us about Danish comics right now. I’ve written at some length about each of the nominees for Best Danish Comic for Paul Gravett’s Best of 2011 rundown, and the general conclusion bears repeating here: this is perhaps the strongest showing in a single year of the last decade or more. A long time.
Finally, it seems that Danish comics are shedding years of polished euro-mainstream fetishization of craft at the expense of ideas and expression. These comics have heart, they want to tell you something. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, the majority of them are by women.
With Danish comics culture having been male-dominated for way longer than those even of our closest neighbors in Sweden and Finland, it seems women understandably have stayed away. The great Nikoline Werdelin has been the main exception to the rule for years. But now women creators are making waves like never before with strong, original work.
That’s just one factor of course, but perhaps the most spectacular one right now. More generally, however, a new generation of cartoonists less concerned with the trends of the past is emerging, and considering the fact that the two big and longstanding big publishers, Carlsen and Egmont fused and went on more or less to implode a few years back, a surprising number of excellent comics from around the world are still being translated and published in Danish.
There’s still much room for improvement of course, and it remains a rather small fragile comics culture, but things are looking up!
Here are this year’s Ping winners:
Best Danish Debut: Post-it monstre by John Kenn Mortensen Best Comic for a Younger Audience: Ankomsten by Shaun Tan Best International Comic in Danish: Speedy Ortiz dør by Jaime Hernandez Best International Comics : Habibi by Craig Thompson Best Danish Online Comic: Signe Parkins & Drawings by Signe Parkins The Hall of Fame Award: Rolf Bülow and Søren Pedersen, founders of Fantask Best Danish Comic: Glimt by Rikke Bakman
Photo above by Niels Larsen. Check his Flickr set from the night here.
Ping, by Storm P.
The Ping in its original iteration was awarded between 1986 and 1996 and was given to an individual for his or her contribution to Danish comics. The new Ping is rather different — it’s a set of awards given in multiple categories, much like the Eisners in the US or the Fauves in Angoulême, France. Nominees in six categories have been selected by the staff of Nummer9 with their votes tallied by Nummer9 editor-in-chief Erik Barkman, Comics Council president Thomas Thorhauge, and myself who therefore couldn’t nominate works ourselves. The winners will be selected by a jury, the members of which will be announced on 1 February and will be presented at an awards ceremony in Lille Vega, Copenhagen 28 February.
Among the nominees are some of the remarkable Danish comics published this past year, several of which are of such high quality that one might hope for international editions in the near future. You will also find nominated in two different categories a number of the best non-Danish comics of 2011. The full list can be seen here.
We’re very happy to announce the inauguration of Ping Resurrected, which would not have happened without the hard work of the great, hard-working organizing committee. Read more about them here. And do show up for the show — it’s going to be a great party!
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Radio Rackham: Tegneserieanalyse live fra Copenhagen Comics
I weekenden var der tegneseriefestival i København — Copenhagen Comics var tilbage, post-covid i en lidt skrabet men meget hyggelig udgave. Udover de aktiviteter, vi i Dansk Tegneserieråd organiserede (herunder to paneler i programmet) og udover den genoplivede Pingpris-uddeling, som jeg agerede fødselshjælper for, men som Mads Bluhm og et stærkt hold, han havde sammensat, organiserede, var jeres yndlingsradio naturligvis også på pletten!
Jeg havde sat tegneserieskaberne Mårdøn Smet — bla. Danmarks mest virtuose og reflekterede — og Karoline Stjernfelt, der aftenen forinden havde vundet Pingprisen for Bedste dansk tegneserie, og derfor dukkede bagstiv op, samt tegneseriekritiker og tidligere Ping-høvding Ida Dybdal i stævne til en omgang tegneserieanalyse. Konceptet, som jeg har opdyrket det gennem årene på netop Copenhagen Comics (og før det Komiks.dk) består I at jeg viser panelet eksempler fra et udvalg vidt forskellige tegneserier (og nogle gange andre ting) og beder dem om at snakke om dem. Det kan tage samtalen i alle mulige retninger og det kan være svært at forudse hvor sammenhængende eller interessant det bliver, men jeg synes som regel det og fordrer spændende samtale og fører til fine øjeblikke. Frederik var der med grejet og Thomas leverede Radio Rackham-kopper til panelet og ydede generel moralsk support. Vi savnede Henry!
Således også denne gang, hvor vi bånde seancen (efter lidt knas i starten) og nu har lagt den op som podcast i vores program for at højne samtalen om tegneserier i det danske. Hermed: