| Ally Sloper Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Veteran British comic creators |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| First award | 1976 |
| Final award | ca. 1982? |
TheAlly Sloper Awards was an annual[1] awards ceremony recognising veteran British comic creators, initiated by comics historianDenis Gifford in 1976. From 1978, they were awarded under the auspices of theAssociation of Comic Enthusiasts, also founded by Gifford.
The awards were named afterAlly Sloper, the nineteenth-century British comic character championed by Gifford as the world's first comic character. Gifford also launched and edited anAlly Sloper 'comic magazine' in 1976 (published byAlan Class Comics). The award itself was a figurine of Ally Sloper, based on brass doorstops that were produced as merchandising in the nineteenth century.[1]
Prize-giving of the first Ally Sloper Awards for comics creators took place at Gifford'sComics 101 comics convention, held March 19–21, 1976, at the Mount Royal Hotel, London, with TV comedianBob Monkhouse presenting.[2] The 1981 "Hall of Fame" award was presented atComicon '81.[3]
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, joke awards, known as the Sloper Award of Merit, had been issued while Ally Sloper was at the peak of his popularity, to topical figures such asScott of the Antarctic,[4] and others who made the news for unusual achievement.[5]
