A trio of emerging comic book artists won accolades in Toronto Friday at the annual Doug Wright Awards, which also saw For Better or For Worse creator Lynn Johnston inducted into the prize's hall of fame.

Vancouver indie filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming picked up the best book award for her book The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, an illustrated memoir of her cosmopolitan, vaudevillian magician great-grandfather that follows the award-winning feature documentary about him released in 2003.Doug Wright Awards co-founder Brad Mackay stands with Lynn Johnston, creator of the long-running For Better or For Worse comic strip at the 2008 Doug Wright Awards ceremony in Toronto on Friday. (Jessica Wong/CBC)

Fleming, who tells her ancestor's story through a colourful collage of comic panels, archival documents, photos and trivia, was surprised simply to have been nominated, let alone to be the winner.

"It's just a complete honour to be included and to have my book validated. It looks so different from what's out there. It doesn't look like people's idea of a graphic novel … even though a graphic novel can be anything," she told CBC News.

"It's a real multimedia book, so to have somebody [say] 'That's great' is fantastic. And I hope it means there will be a little more attention to the book and I hope it means I get a chance to do another one."

The judging panel chose Toronto-based cartoonist Jeff Lemire as the year's best emerging talent for his Essex County books, Vol. 1 Tales From the Farm and Vol. 2 Ghost Stories.

In his acceptance speech, Lemire recounted that until just recently, he had been employed at a downtown Mexican restaurant where a few years ago, prominent Canadian cartoonists Seth, Chester Brown and Joe Matt had sauntered in for a meal.

"As I begrudgingly made their burritos, I vowed that someday those guys would know who I am!" he announced to laughter from the audience.

After the ceremony, Lemire was more serious about his win, calling it "really exciting."

"These awards shine a light on the history of the Canadian cartoonist, which is a small, sort of isolated group of people yet is such a rich culture, rich with history and so much talent. To be included in that lineage is really quite an honour. "

A new prize designed to recognize non-traditional or more experimental works, entitled the Pigskin Peters Award, went to Vancouver illustrator Julie Morstad for her first comic work Milk Teeth.

"Of all the modes of modern art, surrealism is the one least susceptible to sloppiness or imprecision. If you're going to create a dreamlike environment, you have to be a damn good draftsman, able to fool the eye into believing impossible things. It's generally the case that the best surrealists have been artists with strong drawing skills…. Morstad belongs to this tradition," cartoonist Chester Brown said in a tribute to the artist, who was unable to attend the ceremony.

The jury also included writer and film critic Katrina Onstad, cartoonist Ho Che Anderson, Power Plant art gallery curator Helena Rickett and writer and performer Mariko Tamaki.

Cartoon icon Johnston celebrated

The evening included a moderated Q&A with internationally renowned Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston and her induction into the Doug Wright Awards' hall of fame: Giants of the North.

"What was so moving was that Doug Wright was one of the first people to have a real impact on me," Johnston said.

"Never underestimate a five-year-old kid, because that's when I was reading Doug Wright's work," she added.

"Doug was one of my absolute heroes, probably because I didn't have to read anything but also because he also managed to do so much without words. The body language and facial expressions were just exceptional with such an economy of lines. He was someone really to learn from."

After the ceremony, Johnston said she felt this latest honour would "sink in, in time."

"The thoughtfulness comes later when you walk into a place and see your picture or see a plaque and see your name on it and you say, 'It really happened, I'm really one of those' — it's very, very nice."

Founded in May 2005, the Doug Wright Awards celebrate Canadian comics and the cartooning industry past and present. The annual prize is named after the artist behind the syndicated strip Doug Wright's Family, known early on as Nipper, which ran for more than three decades in Canada and abroad.