The UK Comic Art Award was a series of British awards for achievement in comic books. Winners were selected by an open vote among British comic book professionals (creators, editors, and retailers);[1] the awards were given out on an annual basis from 1990 to 1997 for comics published in the United Kingdom the previous year. Award presentations were generally held at the Glasgow Comic Art Convention, usually in the spring.
The UK Comic Art Award took the place of the Eagle Award, a fan-voted award which had petered out by the end of the 1980s. The National Comics Awards took over for the UK Comic Art Award in 1997 (the National Comic Awards were themselves replaced by the rejuvenated Eagle Awards in the 2000s).
The Awards were founded in 1990 by Rusty Staples (Frank Plowright, Hassan Yussuf, and Richard Barker),[2] the company responsible for organizing the United Kingdom Comic Art Convention (UKCAC). The awards were generally sponsored by Penguin Books UK.
The 1991 awards presentation was held at the Glasgow Comic Art Convention (GlasCAC) in late March.[1] The 1993 awards presentation was again held in March at GlasCAC, Glasgow City Halls.[3] The fifth annual UK Comic Art Awards were presented at GlasCAC on Sunday, March 20, 1994.[4] The 1997 awards were presented at the UKCAC, at the UCL Institute of Education, London, on Sunday, March 16.[5]
