Cross Comix and Stripdagen Haarlem invite everyone involved in making small press publications to participate in the Small Press Award 2025. The Cross Comix Festival will take place on Friday September 12 and Saturday September 13 in the Doelen in Rotterdam with presentations, exhibitions, performances, lectures, workshops and other activities. Since 2022, we have also been awarding the Small Press Award, in collaboration with De Stripdagen Haarlem.
What is Small Press?
Small press is inextricably linked to comics: self-published and often beautifully designed publications in a limited edition, in which the creator can express their own unique signature, often even better than with official publishers. These little works of art are beautiful examples of what comics as a medium can do, with wonderful versatility and creativity. Often handmade, or produced in unusual forms and shapes, these publications can be eye candy and they are often real must-haves. Countless comic book creators have started their careers with small press booklets.
The entries for the Small Press Award will be judged by a professional jury consisting of Wasco, Mara Joustra, Tonio Van Vugt, and the joint SPA 2024 winners, Fynn Van Der Ziel en Abel Dijkstra.
The prizes
The winner of the Small Press Award will receive a check worth €1,500 and will be allowed to set up an exhibition during Stripdagen Haarlem in 2026. The two runners-up will both receive a check worth €500.
Read all about the longlist, the selection and the award ceremony for the Small Press Award 2025.
The entry form for the Small Press Award 2025 has been closed.
Please take a good look at the criteria that an entry must meet. The entry is only complete when we have received the following items:
- a fully completed entry form
- a physical copy of the small press edition
- a pdf of the small press edition
- a few photos of the small press edition, attached to the pdf.
The physical copy can be sent to:
Small Press Award, c/o Cross Comix
Postbus 865
Abel Dijkstra (Amsterdam, Netherlands,1998) is a visual storyteller and funny. He makes comics and self-publishes a magazine called Lovely. It’s the most contemporary comics magazine and it’s cool and free (not free of charge but free in spirit).
Fynn van der Ziel (1996) is an artist with a strong affinity for absurdism. Using various media, including plasticine and risography, he creates an unsettling world in which he feels at home.
Mara Joustra is het hoofd van het programma Animation and Comic Design bij Kunstacademie ArtEZ in Zwolle. In het verleden was ze onder meer artistiek leider van Cross Comix.
onio van Vugt (born 1967) is best known as the founder and editor-in-chief of Zone 5300. He also creates comics himself. From 2014 to 2022, he was the artistic director of the Haarlem Comics Festival.
Wasco, also known as G. Wasco or Ge Wasco, has been one of the most prominent authors of the Dutch indie comic scene since the late 1980s. From his occasional publication of Wasco’s Weekblad (1989, 2006) and other hand-made zines, to the art books ‘Het Tuitel Complex’ (2015) and ‘1000 Pinguins’ (2018), to the crowd-funded art comic magazine Aline (2019), Wasco’s oeuvre has remained original, experimental and free from any commercialism.
