Sabba Khan
Sabba Khan is a visual artist, graphic novelist and one half of the architectural design team Khan Bonshek. Born and bred in East London, her work is framed by her experience as a second generation immigrant and her training as an architect. An extract from Sabba’s debut graphic novel was shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Award in 2018. The Roles We Play was published by Myriad in 2021 and has won many awards including the Jhalak Prize 2022 for best book by an artist of colour.
2023 JUDGES
Ayoola Solarin
Ayoola Solarin is a TV writer, comics editor, critic and arts writer. She has worked with numerous award-winning creators, and her byline features include The Guardian, Dazed, Vulture, i-D and Hyperallergic, among other publications. She edited the comics anthology Catalyst as part of SelfMadeHero GAP programme promoting diversity in comics publishing, mentoring and publishing the work of budding comic-book artists of colour.
Steve Marchant
Steve Marchant is a comic creator, writer, and an award-winning cartoon art tutor at The Cartoon Museum in London. He is also a comic strip art tutor at City Lit and has taught at schools, universities, and libraries across the UK. Steve and his team recently won the Community Engagement Programme of the Year category of the Museum and Heritage Awards for the Cartoon Museum’s Autism Programme.
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is one of the UK’s leading contemporary artists. He won the Turner Prize in 2007 for his installation ‘State Britain’. ‘Ecce Homo’ (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. His permanent works include ‘Labyrinth’ (2013), created for Art on the Underground to celebrate 150 years of the London Underground, ‘Writ in Water’ (2018), for the National Trust to celebrate Magna Carta at Runnymede, and ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ (2019) for the London School of Economics.
Corinne Pearlman
Corinne Pearlman, founder and project manager of the First Graphic Novel Competition since its inception by Myriad in 2012, has steered the programme through its four previous instalments, as both judge and administrator. Former Creative Director at Myriad Editions, where she built and commissioned Myriad’s graphic novel list, she is an independent graphic novel editor, designer and production manager. She was an inductee of the Broken Frontier Awards ‘Hall of Fame’ for her services to comics in 2018.
Emma Hayley
Emma Hayley launched SelfMadeHero in 2007, after spotting a gap in the market for high quality graphic novels. Since then, SelfMadeHero has become the UK’s leading independent graphic novel publisher. After creating the successful Manga Shakespeare series, she was named UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year, as part of the 2008 British Book Industry Awards. In 2021, she launched the Arts Council-backed Graphic Anthology Programme to mentor and publish artists from diverse backgrounds.
Alex Fitch
Alex Fitch presents the UK’s only monthly broadcast radio show on comics – Panel Borders – on the Arts Council Radio Station in London, Resonance FM. Alex has been widely published on the topics of comics and film, and is an award winning lecturer in Architecture and Visual Communication at the University of Brighton.