The nine nominees for this year’s Sophie Castille Awards for Comics in Translation – English have been announced this week. The awards will again be presented in partnership with VIP Brands, Ltd, Comica and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, during the annual Festival weekend in Bowness-on-Windermere next month.
Sophie Castille, the namesake of the awards, was the international rights director and VP of licensing for Mediatoon and cofounder and director of Europe Comics. She died unexpectedly in 2022.
“Sophie loved to bring people together,” noted comics authority Paul Gravett on her passing, “and her memory and example live on through all of us.”
In her memory, The Sophie Castille Awards for Comics in Translation honour the vital role of translators in sharing graphic novels across nations and cultures and bringing the world’s comics together.
Now in its third year, the Sophie Castille Award – English is an award for the best translation of a non-English graphic novel into English. Publishers across the globe were invited to submit for consideration graphic novels they have published that are translations of works into English.
Similar awards for the translation of comics into other languages are also taking place in Spain, Poland, Greece, Slovenia and Italy. The ultimate goal is to have these awards in as many countries in the world as possible.
The nine nominees for this year’s Award in English are as follows:
- Martha Kuhlman and Tereza Čechová for BALD, by Tereza Čechová and Štěpánka Jislová. English edition by Graphic Mundi. Originally published in Czech as Bez vlasů by Nakladatelství Paseka in 2020
- Diana Schutz and Brandon Kander for BLACKSAD: THEY ALL FALL DOWN, PART TWO, by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido. English edition by Dark Horse Comics. Originally published in French by Dargaud in 2021
- Margaret Morrison for CAPITAL AND IDEOLOGY, by Claire Alet, Benjamin. English edition by Abrams Comic Arts. Originally published in French by Sueil in 2021
- Jerome Saincantin & Erica Olson Jeffrey for HARRY DICKSON – MYSTERION, by Jean Ray, Onofrio Catacchio, Doug Headline and Luana Vergari. English edition by Cinebook. Originally published in French as Harry Dickson – Mystera by Dupuis in 2023
- Victor Martins for NOT TODAY: UNDOING HOME REPAIRS, by Ana Margarida Matos. English Edition by Fieldmouse Press. Originally published in Portuguese as Hoje Não by Chili Com Carne
- Ryan Holmberg for OBA ELECTROPLATING FACTORY, by Yoshiharu Tsuge. English edition by Drawn & Quarterly. Originally published in Japanese as 大場電気鍍金工業所 in 1973 by Futabasha
- Andrea Rosenberg for RETURN TO EDEN, by Paco Roca. English edition by Fantagraphics. Originally published in Spanish as Regreso al Edén by Astiberri Ediciones in 2020
- Montana Kane for THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF COOKING: FROM PREHISTORY TO TODAY, 500,000 YEARS OF ADVENTURE, by Benoist Simmat. English Edition by NBM. Originally published in French as L’Incroyable Histoire de la cuisine by Les Arènes BD in 2021
- Robin Lang and Helge Dascher for THE JELLYFISH, by Boum (Samantha Leriche-Gionet). English edition by Pow Pow Press. Originally published in French as La méduse by Pow Pow in 2024
The winners of this year’s Sophie Castille Award – English will be announced during this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival (Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September 2025) in Bowness-on-Windermere.
The jury again comprises three judges:
- ALEX FITCH is the presenter of the UK’s only monthly broadcast radio show on comics – Panel Borders – on the Arts Council Radio Station in London. He has been widely published on the topics of film and graphic novels, lectures on the History of Animation at the University of Brighton, and is an award-winning postgraduate comics scholar.
- Dr. HARRIET E. H. EARLE is a senior lecturer of English at Sheffield Hallam University and a research fellow at the Centre for War, Atrocity, and Genocide at Nipissing University in Canada. She is the author of Silence in the Quagmire: The Vietnam War in US Comics and Comics: An Introduction.
- GABI PUTNOKI is the driving force behind the Graphic Novel Reading Room, a comic community initiative spreading the love of graphic novel reading and bringing new readers to the form.
“We’re thrilled to be working with our partners, VIP Brands, Ltd., and Comica in the presentation of these important Awards,” commented LICAF Director Julie Tait. “Translation is a nuanced and complex aspect of bringing international work into English and to a new audience; a skill much under appreciated and certainly not the job of machines.”
The Sophie Castille Awards official site at sophie-castille-awards.org features the latest information of participants in this major international program promoting this vital but often overlooked aspect of comics publishing.
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival returns to Bowness-on-Windermere Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September 2025
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