Student & Lecturer Nominated For Prestigious US Comic Con Awards

A talented student is following in the footsteps of her lecturer after they both bagged nominations for a prestigious comic con award in America.

Dan Berry, Wrexham Glyndwr University’s programme leader for Illustration, Graphic Novels and Children’s Publishing, has been nominated for an Eisner Award for his work as editor and contributor in the Best Anthology category for 24 by 7.

Dan’s student Max Sarin has also been nominated for an Eisner Award, for the Best Continuing Series category for her work on Giant Days.

Speaking about the nomination, Dan said: “These awards are considered the “Oscars” of the comic world so it’s a great honour to be nominated.

“I’m delighted, surprised and incredibly proud that the work that both Max and I have produced has been chosen to be recognised in such a great way. Regardless of whether we win our categories or not, rubbing shoulders with other nominees of such a high standard is a complete honour.”

The Will Eisner Comic Award ceremony will be held at the Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 22nd and will be judged by a panel of industry experts including Danny Fingeroth, a former group editor of Marvel’s Spider-Man comics and writer of Iron Man, the Avengers, Superman and other iconic characters.

Max, an Illustration, Graphic Novels and Children’s Publishing student at Wrexham Glyndwr University’s School of Creative Arts, has also been nominated for an Eisner and a Silver Reuben award in the Comic Book category for her work on the Giant Days series.

The Silver Reuben is awarded by the National Cartoonists Society and winners will be announced at the end of this month.

Max, 30, originally from Finland, said: “I was lucky enough to get involved with Giant Days thanks to my lecturer Dan. His friend asked if he knew anyone that would be interested in working with them on the magazine.

“So I did a few test pages and they seemed to really like it and it went on from there. I was actually only meant to do six issues but I’ve done 10 issues now so 222 pages in total. It’s given me great experience alongside my studies and it was a big shock when I found out we were nominated for two separate awards.”

Giant Days, written by John Allison, has also been nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Writer.

The comic is about Susan, Esther, and Daisy who become friends at university. Away from home for the first time, all three want to reinvent themselves. But are faced with hand-wringing boys, mystery-mold and the intrusion of academia.

For more information on the Comic-Con ceremony visit www.comic-con.org/ or for details about Wrexham Glyndwr University’s Illustration, Graphic Novels and Children’s Publishing course visit www.glyndwr.ac.uk.