What’s better than a Kid Beowulf book? How about an award-winning Kid Beowulf book? Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland took home a silver award in the 2011 PubWest Design Awards, which recognizes “excellent design and outstanding production quality of books from independent publishers.” See the full press release below.

UPDATE: The category in which Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland was entered is Graphic Album – New Material. The gold award in that category went to  Wondermark Volume 3: Dapper Caps & Pedal-Copters by David Malki!

PubWest Announces 2011 Book Design Award Contest Winners

Independent Publishing Association Receives Record Number of Entries for 2011 Contest

Lake Oswego, Oregon — April  21, 2011 — PubWest, the leading trade association of independent publishers, has announced the winners of its 2011 Book Design Awards contest. Recognizing excellent design and outstanding production quality of books from independent publishers, the PubWest Book Design Award contest is the longest running and most prestigious design awards contest in the independent publishing industry. The 2011 PubWest Design Awards contest  received more entries than ever before in its history, judging  160 entries  from 74 publishers  in 20 categories  on typography, jacket/cover design, interior design, format, selection of materials used, and printing and binding production quality. The list of winning titles is now available at pubwest.org.

“I was  delighted with the high quality of books entered into this year’s Book Design Awards contest. With a record number of entries this year, the competition was extremely intense,” said program chair Julie T. Houk of the Boone and Crockett Club. “This was one of the best groups of books we’ve seen in recent years.” Houk added, “We thank the publishers who submitted their titles. Their participation is key to allowing us opportunity to recognize the excellent design and production of today’s independent book publishing industry. Browse through  the list of winning titles  at pubwest.org  and you’ll find  a fascinating variety of successful designs and production qualities.”

Publishers enter the PubWest Book Design Awards to showcase their strongest designs, to recognize the hard work of their editorial production staff and freelancers, and for the unique opportunity to receive critical design feedback from an expert panel of judges.

Winners will be recognized at the  2011 PubWest Conference to be held November 3-5 in Henderson, Nevada at the Green Valley Ranch Resort. For more information on the PubWest Conference program and registration, please visit pubwest.org.

PubWest is  North America’s leading trade association for independent publishers and related service organizations. Comprised of book publishers, printers, graphic designers, editors, binderies, and freelancers, PubWest offers a community of the most dynamic and  innovative professionals in book publishing. Please learn more about PubWest at pubwest.org.

Contact:

Kent Watson

Executive Director

PubWest

Phone: (503) 635-0056

E-mail: executivedirector@pubwest.org

This weekend, Bowler Hat Comics will be joining Kid Beowulf creator Alexis Fajardo at Emerald City Comicon. Come on out and see us!

From the Kid Beowulf website:

This weekend I’ll be in Seattle attending theEmerald City Comicon. This will be the first time I’ve attended ECCC, but I’ve heard good things about the show and am looking forward to it! The show runs Friday, March 4 through Sunday, March 6 and is being held at the Washington State Convention Center. You can find me in Artist’s Alley, at table H-23 with books 1 & 2 and lots of great preview art for Kid Beowulf vs. El Cid. Hope to see you there!

Over the last couple weeks, Bowler Hat Comics has managed to be featured twice by Examiner.com, Portland’s local online journal. The first, “Comics Difficult to Find at Wordstock 2011,” ran on October 12, and features an interview with Bowler Hat Comics Publisher, Bo Johnson. The second, “Portland Comics Go APE (Part Two),” ran on October 20, and features an interview with Kid Beowulf creator, Alexis E. Fajardo. Both articles were written by Christian Lipski. Christian, it’s always a pleasure to chat with you at these shows!

Over the course of the last several weeks, Bowler Hat Comics has picked up a few new fans, thanks to shows like Wordstock (Portland, OR), and the appearance of Kid Beowulf creator, Alexis Fajardo, at Alternative Press Expo (San Francisco, CA). Welcome to the family.

As part of our Wordstock show, we offered a drawing for this delightful Kid Beowulf scupture.

We collected as many entries as we could from kids, teachers and librarians, and anyone purchasing a Kid Beowulf title, and without further ado, the winner is – or rather, the winners are – Dante and Theo Erz! Congratulations Dante and Theo; your prize will be mailed to you soon.

For those of you who still want a sculpt of our viking hero, they’re available for purchase at KidBeowulf.com along with sculpts of Grendel and Hama. And don’t forget the books are now also available for purchase from our very own site here.

Cheers and happy reading,
Bo

Check out this fresh review of KID BEOWULF AND THE SONG OF ROLAND from GeekDad.com. Below is just a taste of the full piece:

The books revel in the placenames and proper names of epic poetry. There’s lots of discussion of Heathobards, Geats, and Danes, and of the Saracens and Franks. At the same time, the books largely avoid the excesses of Thor-speak. There are a fair number of outbursts such as “By Woden,” or “Odin’s eye” for local color–in other words, exactly the sort of thing that a kid might enjoy picking up. The books do not, however, make a fetish of authenticity. Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland has a joke about union rep, for example, and the plot depends on the construction of an amusement park. The books are positioned clearly as a gateway drug to the classics, and do a good job of it.

Wordstock is a week away, and look who’ll be there: Bowler Hat’s very own star of the comics pages, Kid Beowulf!

Beowulf watches the sunset in the valleys of Daneland.

Be sure to stop by our table – look for us near the Stumptown section, next to Dark Horse Comics – and tell him how much you enjoy his adventures! One lucky attendant will win this sculpt to take home. We’ll have books for sale, and special offers for the weekend, but you’ll have to visit to find out what they are!

If you’re a teacher or a librarian, be sure to stop by and ask us about our educational offers.

See you at the show!

We may not be at Comic-Con this year, but we can still celebrate comics! For the duration of San Diego Comic-Con, we’re giving away the first Kid Beowulf iPhone app for free on iTunes! The giveaway ends with Comic-Con, so get it while you can.

For fans of the Bowler Hat book reviews, the good news just keeps getting better. As some of you know, our reviews are written by interns and volunteers for the press. To date, these reviewers have remained by and large nameless. But due to popular request, we’re changing this with our newest reviewer. Allow me to introduce Lucy Softich, the newest book reviewer for Bowler Hat Comics!

Over the course of the next several months, Lucy will be the primary reviewer of the books you find in our “Have You Read … ?” feature. Having a sense of what she has in store for you, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! To welcome Lucy into the fold, we’ll launch her reviews this friday with a double feature. Stay ‘tooned!

As before, our comment section continues to be closed, although we are considering opening them for future reviews. In the meantime, feel free to drop us a line with your feedback and suggestions. What books would you like to see reviewed? What reviews motivated you to read something new? How has this feature changed your life for the better?

Drop us a line; let us know what you think.

Starting this week our reviews section will be changing its look. Love it or hate it? Let us know what you think!