Amid the flurry of American Library Association distinctions this week, led by the Youth Media Awards, several blue-ribbon graphic novels and comics got their due. On January 26, the ALA Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table announced its first-ever slate of Outstanding Comics Awards in the adult, young adult, and children’s categories. Each category included recognitions for fiction, nonfiction, and series work.

Shauntee Burns-Simpson, 2025–2026 GNCRT president and the director of youth and family services at D.C. Public Library, said the awards “give validation” to comics.

“This was something that needed to happen in this library space,” Burns-Simpson said. “I think it’s the perfect time to launch, because it reflects the care and intention our community brings to uplifting graphic literature.”

The awards are not currently part of the YMAs or another celebration, but Burns-Simpson doesn't rule that out for future years: "I'd love for us to have a big award show," she said, although "we definitely don't want our adult awards lingering out there," separate from the youth categories. "This needs to be part of a larger conversation."

In the category of Outstanding Comics for Adults, the winner for fiction was Tongues, written and illustrated by Anders Nilsen (Pantheon). The nonfiction prize went to Insectopolis, written and illustrated by Peter Kuper (Norton). Series accolades went to author Marjorie Liu’s Night Eaters—She Eats the Night, Her Little Reapers, and Their Kingdom Come—illustrated by Sana Takeda (Abrams ComicArts).

The Outstanding Comics for Young Adults were fiction title The Boy Wonder, written and illustrated by Juni Ba (DC Comics); the nonfiction memoir Raised by Ghosts, written and illustrated by Briana Loewinsohn (Fantagraphics); and the series Teen Titans—Raven, Beast Boy, Beast Boy Loves Raven, Robin, and Starfire—by Kami Garcia, illustrated by Gabriel Picolo, Jon Sommariva, Emma Kubert, and Rob Haynes (DC Comics).

Awards in Outstanding Comics for Children went to early reader A Pond Full of Pals! (Froggy #1), written and illustrated by Paige Walshe (Flying Eye); autobiographical middle grade comic How to Draw a Secret, written and illustrated by Cindy Chang (Allida Books); and the middle grade Witches of Brooklyn series—What the Hex, S’More Magic, Spell of a Time, and Curse & Reverse—written and illustrated by Sophie Escabasse (Random House Graphic).

More information about the prize winners, category honorees, and creative teams for adults, young adults, and children is available on ALA’s website. The GNCRT website is being updated to reflect the roundtable’s latest contributions, and the roundtable reached out to illustrator Chris Schweizer to design the award seal, which pictures a traditional pen nib next to a digital pencil.

The Outstanding Comics Awards have been in development for several years, with a goal of matching the prestige of well-known ALA prizes such as the Newberys or Alex Awards. Where the Youth Media Awards focus on children and teens, including in the Alex Awards that honor crossover adults-to-youth titles, the graphic novel and comics listings emphasize all-ages appeal.

“I’m a youth librarian at heart, but when youth consider themselves readers, it’s because the adults in their lives are readers,” said GNCRT president Burns-Simpson, whose collaboration with GNCRT began while she was president of ALA’s Black Caucus and developing Black Lives Matter comics reading lists.

GNCRT treasurer Kacy Helwick, youth collection development librarian at the New Orleans Public Library, helped the roundtable propose the award, liaise with the ALA executive board, and coordinate the committee process. “We’re excited to have this specific comics and graphic novel award coming from the library association,” Helwick said. “There are other comics awards out there tied into conventions, and graphic novels are winning awards all over the place. Now we have one specifically for libraries in this format, and that will drive reading, especially in the kids’ area.”

Helwick also noted that these awards are unique in their recognition of series and entire creative teams. “The series awards honor something that’s told a story over volumes or makes sense five volumes in,” she said, and that sets the GNCRT awards apart from prizes that recognize stand-alones or privilege only the first in a longer series.

Winning creators will receive their awards in person this June at ALA’s 150th anniversary conference in Chicago.