Submission Deadline Fast Approaching For Dwayne McDuffie Award

December 31 is the deadline to submit your work for consideration for the Second Annual Dwayne McDuffie Award. The award will be given on February 20 at the Long Beach Comic Expo, and recognizes the promotion of diversity in American comics. According to the award's director, Neo Edmund, this includes widening the diversity of characters and creators within the comics medium.

Here's more from Edmund:

This award is a celebration of diversity in the medium of comic books. It is intended to raise awareness of the need to broaden the racial and gender representation of the characters we see on the pages of comic books, and to also broaden such representation of those who create this beloved form of visual storytelling.

McDuffie was one of the founders of Milestone Media, a comic book company owned by people of color, dedicated to publishing stories about superheroes of color. He waas also known for his animation work, including Static Shock, Justice League Unlimited, and Ben 10. McDuffie's passing in 2011 at the age of 49 is a loss still keenly felt in an industry still struggling to embrace diversity.

Last year's inaugural winner of the award was Nilah Magruder, for her webcomic M.F.K., which tells the story of a teenage girl on a quest to return her mother's ashes to their ancestral home. The selection committee for this year's award consists of Neo Edmund (Award Director, novelist), Marv Wolfman (Marvel and DC Comics), Joan Hilty (Nickelodeon Comics, Vertigo), Joseph Illidge (Milestone, DC Comics), Glen Murakami DC Animation, Cartoon Network), William J. Watkins (writer, former owner of Chicago's first black-owned comics store), and Len Wein (Marvel and DC Comics).

To learn more, and to submit an entry, visit Neo Edmund's website.