Recommended Reading: Chroma Art Awards 2015 - Comic Art Winners

Above: Artwork by Jem Yoshioka, from Folding Kimono. cc-by-sa Jem Yoshioka Creative Commons NZ 3.0 license, 2015.

The recent Chromacon Arts Festival celebrates excellence in local illustration and comics each festival with the Chroma Art Awards. This year's top prize went to Jem Yoshioka for her comic Folding Kimono, an autobiographical comic about being a Japanese-New Zealander, and discussing the barriers to engaging with heritage across distance and generations through the gift and care of a traditional kimono. You can read the full comic HERE. This was Yoshioka's second consecutive win at Chromacon, previously taking the 1st place at the 2013 Comic Art Awards with her comic Sunshine, which you can also read HERE.

Above: a page from Ricky & Lyle by Ralphi. Copyright Lauren Marriott 2015.

Ralphi aka Lauren Marriott took second place with a tale from the hilarious take-no-s#!t duo, Ricky & Lyle, which you can read HERE. Rachel Royale aka Rachel Smythe placed third with her evocative fairy tale The Maiden, which you can read HERE.

Above: a page from The Maiden by Rachel Royale. Copyright Rachel Smythe 2015.

The runner-up finalists included: Kayla Oliver with The Cat and The Fox, which you can read HERE; Cory Mathis with My Wife the Mastodon, which you can read HERE;  and The Blue Masque by Theo Macdonald which you can read HERE.

And as an extra bonus, you can also view the other comics entires for the Chroma Art Awards: Snap by Sarah Lund, Two Ducks' Down by Giselle Clarkson, Complaining Coffee Cup by Nick Baillie, Jenny Music by Eddie Monotone, Defence by Jonathan King, Marioff by Bell Miura, Ballard of the Bushwhacked by Stuart Hallam, The Great Budgie Switcharoo by Austin O' Connell-Milne, and comics by Thomas Bailey, Simon Ripley and Gabrielle Westerlund.

So while you're wrapped up inside this weekend as the winter weather rolls in, take some time out to read some of these fantastic local comics. Congratulations to the winners and all the cartoonists mentioned here for producing some really great stories, and enjoy the weekend reading!

For more information on Chromacon Arts Festival, you can visit the website HERE.

- AK!