Associate Professor Carol Tilley has been selected as a judge for the 2020 Ringo Awards for achievement in comic books. Tilley is part of a five-member esteemed jury representing a cross-section of the comic book industry, which includes educators, publishers, press, and creators across numerous genres. Among her fellow jury members is Gene Luen Yang, a recent MacArthur Fellow and the Library of Congress' fifth National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Unlike other professional industry awards, the Mike Wieringo (Ringo) Comic Book Industry Awards include fan participation in the nomination process.
"I'm honored to be a judge for the 2020 Ringo Awards, which celebrate in part the connections comics help make between creators and fans," said Tilley. "The comics industry—like nearly every creative industry—is undergoing profound changes due to COVID-19, making it even more essential to recognize the people who make such outstanding storytelling through a combination of words and images possible. My experience serving as a juror for the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards in 2016 taught me that even after nearly fifty years of reading comics and more than twenty years of studying them, I still have so much to learn about them. I have no doubt that my experience as a Ringo Awards juror will reveal the same."
The 2020 Ringo Awards will be presented on October 24 at the Baltimore Comic-Con.
At the iSchool, Tilley teaches courses in comics reader's advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship. Part of her scholarship focuses on the intersection of young people, comics, and libraries, particularly in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Her research on anti-comics advocate Fredric Wertham has been featured in The New York Times and other media outlets. An in-demand speaker on the history of comics readership and libraries, Tilley was a 2016 Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards judge and is a past president of the Comics Studies Society.