Final Xeric Award Recipients Announced

The final recipients of grants from the Xeric Foundation -- set up twenty years ago to provide financial assistance to up-and-coming comic creators looking to self-publish their work -- have been announced, bringing an end to something that has helped countless creators, from Jeff Lemire, Fred Van Lente and Daniel Way to Gene Luen Yang, Nick Bertozzi and Farel Dalrymple, concentrate on creating comics early in their respective careers.

The official announcement of the decision to move from grants towards charitable donations came a year ago, with Xeric founder and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird explaining that "the advent of essentially free web publishing has forever altered the way aspiring comic book creators can get their work out into the public eye," lessening the need for financial aid to self-publish work. Indeed, some of the creators named in the final round have published their work online ahead of a final print publication, demonstrating the difference in independent publishing opportunities today, when compared with 1992 when the Xeric Foundation was created. Since its creation, the foundation has awarded more than $2.5 million to creators; this final round split $74,510 between seventeen projects.

Those projects are:

Polterguys by Laurianne Uy

Oak by Max Badger

Old Man Gloom by Arwen Donahue

In The Sounds and Seas: Vol. 1 by Marnie Galloway

Tiny Bangs by Olivia Horvath

The Blonde Woman by Aidan Koch

The Professor and The Paperboy by John Malta

Ci Vediamo by Hazel Newlevant

Dear Beloved Stranger by Shih-Mu Dino Pai

How I Made The World by Liz Plourde and Randy Michaels

Usagi Jane and The Skullbunnies by Benjamin Seto

Castle and Wood by Darin Shuler

Sea Change: A Choose-Your-Own-Way Story by Caitlin Skaalrud

The Reptile Mind by Bernard Stiegler

Overboard by Laura Terry

Look Straight Ahead by Elaine M. Will

Wild Child by M. Young

The Xeric Foundation itself doesn't cease to exist with this final round of grant awards; it will continue to offer charitable donations to other non-profit organizations in the future.

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