The Ministry of Culture (MOC) announced the finalists of the 16th Golden Comic Awards (GCA) and the winner of the Special Contribution Award on Aug. 6. Following careful evaluation by the judging panel, Huang Chien-he (黃健和) was named the recipient of this year’s Special Contribution Award.
Out of 224 submissions, 24 outstanding works have made it to the shortlist. The GCA encompasses categories including Best New Talent, Best Cross-media Application, Best Editor, Comic of the Year, and the Grand Prize, with total prize money of NT$2.75 million. The award ceremony is scheduled to take place in late October.
According to the judges, Huang Chien-he served as the editor of the “Weekly Comics (星期漫畫)” in the 1980s, a publication that ushered in the golden age of Taiwanese comics and helped introduce them to European and North American markets. His contributions over the past three decades have played a vital role in bringing Taiwanese comics to the global stage.
The judges also highlighted the strong competition among this year’s entries, noting a diversity of themes—including social realism, nativism, literary adaptations, and science fiction, adding that, each contestant—whether a seasoned veteran or an ambitious rookie—has showed their creative strength in the fierce contest.
Minister of Culture Li Yuan congratulated the finalists and expressed his support for interdisciplinary collaboration, emphasizing that comics integrate storytelling, visual art, and storyboarding. He also expressed his hope that Taiwanese comic artists will forge a path distinct from those of Japanese and Korean comics.
For more information, visit the Golden Comic Awards official website and Facebook page.