"Hailey's On It!," "Star Wars: Doctor Aphra" win 2024 GLAAD Media Awards
The first half of this year’s GLAAD Media Awards were held on March 14 in Los Angeles, with the second half scheduled for May 11 in New York. For the unfamiliar, the awards honor LGBTQ-related characters, stories, etc. in media.
Below are the 2024 GLAAD Media Awards animation- and comic-related nominees and winners. Animation and comic entries are in italics. A full list of nominees and winners is available here.
Outstanding Children’s Programming
“Blue River Wedding” Ada Twist: Scientist (Netflix) (winner)
“Any Way You Slice It” Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City (Netflix)
Bossy Bear (Nick Jr.)
Firebuds (Disney Jr.)
Monster High (Nickelodeon)
Pinecone & Pony (Apple TV+)
Princess Power (Netflix)
Ridley Jones (Netflix)
Summer Camp Island (Cartoon Network)
Work It Out Wombats! (PBS Kids)
Outstanding Comedy Series
Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) (winner)
And Just Like That… (Max)
Good Omens (Amazon Prime Video)
Harlem (Prime Video)
Harley Quinn (Max)
Our Flag Means Death (Max)
Sex Education (Netflix)
Somebody Somewhere (HBO)
What We Do In The Shadows (FX)
With Love (Amazon Prime Video)
Outstanding Comic Book
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, by Alyssa Wong, Minkyu Jung, Natacha Bustos, Jethro Morales, Rachelle Rosenberg, Joe Caramagna (Marvel Comics) (winner)
Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, by Tom Taylor, Clayton Henry, Darick Robertson, Norm Rapmund, Jordie Bellaire, Wes Abbott (DC Comics)
Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain, by Tini Howard, Vasco Georgiev, Erick Arciniega, Ariana Maher (Marvel Comics)
Hawkgirl, by Jadzia Axelrod, Amancay Nahuelpan, Adriano Lucas, Alex Guimaraes, Carrie Strachan, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (DC Comics)
Killer Queens 2, by David M. Booher, Bradley Clayton, Harry Saxon, Lucas Gattoni (Dark Horse Comics)
The Neighbors, by Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Letizia Cadonici, Alessandro Santoro, Becca Carey (BOOM! Studios)
New Mutants Lethal Legion, by Charlie Jane Anders, Enid Balam, Elisabetta D’Amico, Matt Milla, Travis Lanham (Marvel Comics)
The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, by Tate Brombal based on an idea by James Tynion IV, Isaac Goodhart, Miquel Muerto, Aditya Bidikar (Dark Horse Comics)
Poison Ivy, by G. Willow Wilson, Atagun Ilhan, Marcio Takara, Guillem March, Kelley Jones, A.L. Kaplan, Luana Vecchio, Arif Prianto, Ivan Plascencia, Jose Villarrubia, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (DC Comics)
Tim Drake: Robin, by Meghan Fitzmartin, Riley Rossmo, Ricardo Lopez Ortiz, Serg Acuna, Nikola Cizmesija, Lee Loughridge, Josh Reed, Tom Napolitano (DC Comics)
Outstanding Original Graphic Novel/Anthology
Four-Color Heroes, by Richard Fairgray (Fanbase Press) (winner)
Blackward, by Lawrence Lindell (Drawn & Quarterly)
Carmilla: The First Vampire, by Amy Chu, Soo Lee, Sal Cipriano (Berger Books/Dark Horse Comics)
Cosmoknights (Book Two), by Hannah Templer (Top Shelf Productions)
Heartstopper Vol. 5, by Alice Oseman (Graphix/Scholastic)
Light Carries On, by Ray Nadine (Dark Horse Books)
Northranger, by Rey Terciero, Bre Indigo (HarperAlley)
Parallel, by Matthias Lehmann (ONI Press)
Roaming, by Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Us, by Sara Soler, Joamette Gil (Dark Horse Books)
Outstanding Kids & Family Programming or Film — Animated
Hailey’s On It! (Disney Channel) – Winner
Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (Max)
Craig Of The Creek (Cartoon Network)
The Dragon Prince (Netflix)
The Ghost and Molly McGee (Disney Channel)
The Loud House (Nickelodeon)
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Disney Channel)
Nimona (Netflix)
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder (Disney+)
Transformers: EarthSpark (Paramount+)
Outstanding Video Game
Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) – Winner
Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP)
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Little Goody Two Shoes (AstralShift/Square Enix)
Overwatch 2 (Blizzard Entertainment)
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Studios/Humble Games)
Tchia (Awaceb/Kepler Interactive)
Thirsty Suitors (Outerloop Games/Annapurna Interactive)
This Bed We Made (Lowbirth Games)
Too Hot To Handle 2 (Nanobit/Netflix Games)
My thoughts
“Ada Twist: Scientist” is a show about a young African American girl who invents things to improve life for her family and friends. A cute show, reminiscent of a science-themed version of “Doc McStuffins.” (Maybe because “Ada Twist””s producer, Chris Nee, also created “Doc McStuffins.”) One episode featured the wedding of two men, voiced by actors Guillermo Diaz and George Takei.
Disney Channel series “Hailey’s On It!,” which debuted last year, managed to beat some stiff competition in its category. This includes Netflix’s “Nimona,” Nickelodeon’s “The Loud House,” and fellow Disney series “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” “The Ghost and Molly McGee,” and “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” I’ve seen “Hailey,” and while an OK show, I was rooting for “Moon Girl.”
On the comics side, “Star Wars: Doctor Aphra” won out over the other entries, including prominent characters such as Tim Drake, Poison Ivy, and Superman’s son Jon Kent. "Doctor Aphra" last won a GLAAD award in 2020.
I notice Disney and Warner Bros. dominated the ongoing comic and animated kids programming/film categories. For the former, DC made up four entries and Marvel three; for the latter, Disney took up four slots, while Warner Bros., Paramount, and Netflix took two slots each. However, one area neither media conglomerate won was for outstanding comedy series. That went to Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso,” beating the only animated entry, Max’s “Harley Quinn.”
“Four-Color Heroes” is a graphic novel about two queer teenage boys during New Zealand’s legalization of same-sex civil unions 20 years ago. (Same-sex marriage has been legal in New Zealand since 2013.)
On the video game side, “Baldur’s Gate 3,” a game that’s received a ton of attention (based on what I’ve seen of video game fan discussions), won its category. I haven’t played this game or its predecessors.