September 1, 2025

The nominees are in for the esteemed Ignatz Awards presented at the annual Small Press Expo, and The Center for Cartoon Studies is happy to announce that several members of our community have been nominated.

The nominees are….

Self-published RUST BELT REVIEW, VOL. 6, by Sean Knickerbocker ‘12 is nominated for Outstanding Anthology. A serialized literary comics anthology, this volume of RUST BELT REVIEW includes works by independent comic and zine artists Andrew Greenstone, Alex Nall, Ana Pando, Ivy Lynn Allie ‘21, and Knickerbocker.

Kazimir Lee ‘16 is nominated for Outstanding Artist for their YA graphic novel, LOW ORBIT, published by Top Shelf Productions. School Library Journal said, “Lee has crafted an earnest coming-of-age graphic novel… Azar’s resilience can be a model for teens to recognize that the pain they are in now is not how they might feel in the future.”

Self-published ALLODYNIA by Violet Kitchen ‘23 is nominated for Outstanding Minicomic. Kitchen’s description of the work: “When a local hospital puts out a recruitment flyer for an experimental medical study, Tess decides to volunteer, hoping to repair their relationship with their chronically ill partner, Jules. But as the study progresses, Tess is forced to confront their own relationship to pain—and its limits.”

Also, nominated for Outstanding Minicomic is CCS 2024/25 Fellow Arantza Peña Popo for her self-published THE MOLE. Popo, who began contributing to The New Yorker in 2020, said THE MOLE is “about a depraved lesbian who falls in love with [a woman’s mole] and has a manipulative relationship with her.”

Congratulations to all the nominees! To see the complete list, visit: smallpressexpo.com/ignatz-awards/
Make sure to cast your vote before September 12, 2025, at 8 PM EST. Request a ballot today!

The Ignatz Award was named in honor of the comic strip character Krazy Katz by George Herriman. Since 1997, the Small Press Expo has awarded the prize to take note of outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning. “The Ignatz recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression.”