Recap and Winners of the 2025 Graphic Novel Making Contest

Event Photos Event Video Graphic Making Novel Contest

Graphic Novel Making Contest 2025

The annual Graphic Novel Making Contest Awards Ceremony was hosted by San José Public's Information Manager, Elizabeth Castañeda, at the Rotunda at the San José City Hall on September 13, 2025. This year’s contest featured 272 submissions in five age categories. This is a 40% increase in entries from last year!

Throughout the Summer of 2025, the Graphic Novel Making Contest Committee hosted a variety of in-person and virtual programs. These programs were designed to encourage and develop illustrative storytelling to help prepare those wanting to submit an entry to the 2025 Graphic Novel Making Contest do so.

The final program of the Graphic Novel Making Contest was our Awards Ceremony, where we heard from two industry leaders about their journey into graphic novels and comics, as well as sage advice on overcoming difficulties in creativity.

Speakers

Every Awards Ceremony, the Graphic Novel Making Contest Committee strives to bring influential guest speakers to inspire the San José community. Here were this year's guest speakers:

Minnie Phan

Minnie Phan is an award winning Vietnamese-American illustrator and writer based in Oakland, CA. Her past clients include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Chronicle Books, and the San Francisco Public Library, with which she illustrated a citywide reading campaign in 2022. Working in a broad range of media, her accomplishments include collaborating with Pulitzer Prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, painting a 250 square foot mural for Google, and most recently, illustrating the Vietnamese American Model Curriculum for the California Department of Education. Phan has been recognized by the The New York Times, Society of Illustrators, and Eisner Awards. She is the illustrator of the picture books The Yellow Áo Dài and Simone.

Born in Stockton, CA to refugee parents, Phan believes art can transform lives and be a vehicle for social impact. When she isn’t in her studio, Phan contributes to KALW Public Media, whose mission is to ignite conversations, uplift new voices, challenge prevailing narratives, and empower communities to envision a better world.

Jessica Fong

Jessica Fong is a Bay Area based illustrator known for her stunning cover art in DC Comics’ GLAAD Award–winning Poison Ivy series. Her artwork often blends surrealism with nature. Fong’s work captures the “terribly sublime,” a theme that is both haunting and aesthetically captivating. She contributes a range of covers for DC, Marvel, Mad Cave Studios, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Heroic Signatures, and more. Her work can also be found in Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, Critical Role’s Midst series, Fandom Inc, and Marvel Snap.

When the opportunity arises she contributes to independent projects, works on personal narrative work, and raises money for various LGBTQ causes at conventions and appearances.

Winners of the 2025 Graphic Novel Making Contest

All Entries can be found on BiblioBoard.

2025 Entries

And now, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Annual Graphic Novel Making Contest by age category:

Child (0-7)

First Place: Juno Ma for A Big World
Second Place: Abhishree Kumar for Helping Planet Zoomba
Third Place: Daniella Meija for Glooby and Slime Monster
Honorable Mention: Evelyn Cervantes for Penguin and Splash
Honorable Mention: Elliot Willett for Elle and Daddy's Golf Adventure

Child (8-9)

First Place: Paxton Chen for The Life as a Left Hander
Second Place: Adam Sadi for THE ADVENTURES OF IRONWOMAN
Third Place: Ruana Pal for The Protectors of Peace
Honorable Mention: Nathan Lee for Dino Adventure
Honorable Mention: Luke Ma for The Buff Lifter Showdown

Pre-Teen (10-12)

First Place: Vivian Hoang for Unicron and the Ugly Trash Stealing Bear Named Baer
Second Place: Eleanor Wang for Out of Tune (A True Story)
Third Place: Celina Yang for The Days of a Bobaholic
Honorable Mention: Jack Nguyen for Henry & Joe in Parachute
Honorable Mention: Ramin Sarwer for Lava Lad: Black and White

Teen (13-17)

First Place: Audrielle Walter for Not So Bloody Mary
Second Place: Claire Chen for Shackled to the Moon
Third Place: Laura Bruennert for The Story of a Siren
Honorable Mention: Katherine Li for Power of the Blank Page
Honorable Mention: Oliver Yau and Elliot Yau for Tako Ramen

Adult(18+)

First Place: Iris Moore for 404: Job Not Found!!
Second Place: Elise Phan for a cloud at the bottom of the sea
Third Place: Carp for Do You Think Love Can Bloom, Even in the Laundromat?!
Honorable Mention: Perry Willig for Rudy in Wonderland

Sponsors & Special Thanks

A big thank you to this year's generous sponsors! Thanks to our sponsors, we were able to provide every participant with a participation gift and winners with prize bundles.

A special thank you goes out to our Community Judges and San José Public Library staff who helped make this contest a success!

Get Ready for Next Year

It's never too early to start to think about preparing for the Graphic Novel Making Contest next year. Read these graphic novels picked by SJPL staff members to get inspiration.

SJPL Staff Picks