Returning for their fourth year in 2008, the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards recognize and celebrate the achievements of Canadian comic book creators of the past, present, and future.

The Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association has posted a preliminary list of Canadian writers, artists and cartoonists who had work published between January and December 2007 on their website: http://www.joeshusterawards.com.

Between now and then the list will be updated as information gets confirmed, including the list of eligible colorists and publishers. These updates will continue until March 1, 2008.

On February 4th, the 2008 Nominating Committee will spend the next two months reviewing and discussing the eligible creators and their works until they have selected a final ballot of 7 nominees per category.

For the first time, the Joe Shuster Awards will then be decided by a jury (membership to be announced) who will then receive copies of all nominated works and have approximately six weeks to decide on the winners in each category. In previous years these categories were decided by popular vote.

The Joe Shuster Awards will be presented in Toronto at a special ceremony that will take place in June of 2008, as part of celebrations surrounding the 70th Anniversary of the publication of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel's most famous creation, Superman in Action Comics #1, which featured the cover date of June 1938. The date and location of the ceremony will be announced shortly.

The Joe Shuster Awards are the first and most widely recognized national achievement award for Canadians working on comic books, graphic novels, and webcomics, were established in 2004, and first presented in April 2005. The awards are named after Joe Shuster, the Canadian-born co-creator of Superman, and are named as such with permission of his estate. The Joe Shuster Awards honour the people who create comics, publish comics and sell comics.

Creator nominees are nominated for their body of work during the previous calendar year, not just for one specific work. In previous incarnations the awards have been short-list nominated and then decided by public vote. In 2008 the system will change to be a mixture of nominated/jury vote (merit) and nominated/public vote (popularity) to ensure that works are given adequate consideration.

Hall of Fame and Retailer Awards are selected by individual committees after a review and discussion of eligible candidates. Three Hall of Fame candidates will be initiated into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame in 2008. Aside from the retailer award committee, active creators can only act as advisors so as not to influence a bias in any of the creative awards categories.

The 2008 poster will be designed by Canadian comic book artist Tom Grummett.

The Joe Shuster Awards are run by the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association (CCBCAA), a not-for-profit organization that relies on sponsorship, eBay and convention sales of prints and memorabilia or private donations. 2008 sponsors include: Lionshead Resort, Comic Guaranty LLC (CGC), Sipps Publishing, Diamond Comic Distributors, and Quebecor World.

For more information on the Joe Shuster Awards please contact joeshusterawards@yahoo.ca or visit the website.