CXC Awards: Burns, Feazell, Murakami, and Plant
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At last weekend’s 2025 CXC festival honored a few comics creators with their annual awards.
For 2025 awards were handed out to Charles Burns, Matt Feazell, Gigi Murakami, and Bud Plant.
From Total Apex Entertainment:
CXC 2025 Master Cartoonist: Charles Burns
Charles Burns, whose name is virtually synonymous with boundary-pushing graphic novels, was awarded the Master Cartoonist prize. His breakthrough series Black Hole remains a touchstone of body horror and coming-of-age storytelling, and more recently, he released Final Cut (serially as Dédales) and Kommix, an inventive showcase of entirely invented comic titles.
Among Charles Burns contributions was the Big Baby alternative comic strip that ran from 1983 to 1992.
Emerging Talent: Gigi Murakami
The Emerging Talent award went to American mangaka Gigi Murakami, whose voice fuses horror, alternative sensibilities, and Japanese nerd and genre culture. Already nominated for Harvey and Ignatz Awards, Murakami’s work includes the Viz Originals one-shot Resenter and contributions to The Sinister Sisters and Other Terrifying Tales. Drawing on cross-cultural influences, Murakami is widely viewed as part of the future of global manga and hybrid cartooning.
More of Gigi Murakami‘s art work here.
Transformative Work: Matt Feazell
Matt Feazell received the Transformative Work award for his enduring stick-figure superhero series The Amazing Cynicalman. Though deceptively simple in form, the comic’s longevity—running since 1980—and consistent voice have earned it respect across the indie and alt-comics community.
Check out Matt Feazell at his website.
Tom Spurgeon Award (Non-Cartoonist): Bud Plant
Honoring contributions beyond the pen and ink, the Tom Spurgeon Award went this year to comics distributor and retailer Bud Plant. A fixture of underground comix and the direct market era, Plant’s newsletters, catalogs, and shops have helped sustain comics culture for decades.
Of all the above Bud Plant is the one I am most familiar with. At a time before widespread comic shops, and way before the internet, Bud gave us our comics fix for hard-to-find underground comix, comic fanzines, and related books. Always reliable, always top-notch. And while Bud Plant the man is retiring, Bud Plant the company continues.
feature image from Charles Burns’ Final Cut
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