The 2025 GLAAD Media Awards were held last week in Los Angeles. Unlike previous years, this year’s awards weren’t split into two parts, instead given all at once like most other award shows.
Below are this year’s animation and comic related nominees and winners. Animation and comic entries are in italics; winners are in bold. A full list of nominees is available here.
Outstanding New Series
- Agatha All Along (Disney+)
- Black Doves (Netflix)
- Brilliant Minds (NBC)
- Diarra from Detroit (BET+)
- Fantasmas (HBO)
- Hazbin Hotel (Amazon Prime Video)
- How to Die Alone (Hulu)
- Kaos (Netflix)
- No Good Deed (Netflix)
- Palm Royale (Apple TV+)
Outstanding Children’s Programming
- The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish (Nickelodeon)
- “Aunt Praline’s Sweetie Pie” Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City (Paramount+)
- Firebuds (Disney Jr.)
- “I’m Pogey” Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV+)
- Let’s Go, Bananas! (Cartoonito)
- Monster High (Nickelodeon)
- “Our Family Musical” Sesame Street (Max)
- “Princess Royal Wedding” Princess Power (Netflix)
- Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (Disney Jr. / Disney+)
- Vida the Vet (Netflix)
Outstanding Kids & Family Programming or Film – Live Action
- Heartstopper (Netflix)
- Empire Waist (Blue Fox Entertainment)
- “If You Love Me” Beyond Black Beauty (Amazon Prime Video)
- Jane (Apple TV+)
- “Louds in Love” The Really Loud House (Nickelodeon)
Outstanding Kids & Family Programming or Film – Animated
- Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (Netflix)
- The Bravest Knight (Hulu)
- The Dragon Prince (Netflix)
- Fright Krewe (Hulu / Peacock)
- Kiff: The Haunting of Miss McGravy’s House (Disney Channel)
- “I Wanna Dance with My Buddy” Hailey’s On It! (Disney Channel)
- The Loud House (Nickelodeon)
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Disney Channel)
- “Powerless” Monsters at Work (Disney Channel)
- “Summer of Heart Eyes” Primos (Disney Channel)
Outstanding Video Game
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare / Electronic Arts)
- Caravan SandWitch (Studio Plane Toast / Dear Villagers)
- Dread Delusion (Lovely Hellplace / DreadXP)
- Dustborn (Red Thread Games / Spotlight by Quantic Dream)
- Fear the Spotlight (Cozy Game Pals / Blumhouse Games)
- Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine / Square Enix)
- Minds Beneath Us (BearBone Studio)
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo)
- Sorry We’re Closed (à la mode games / Akupara Games)
- Until Then (Polychroma Games / Maximum Entertainment)
Outstanding Comic Book
- Suicide Squad: Dream Team, by Nicole Maines, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, José Luís, Adriano Di Benedetto, Adriano Lucas, Becca Carey (DC Comics)
- Alan Scott: The Green Lantern, by Tim Sheridan, Cian Tormey, Jordi Tarragona, Raúl Fernandez, John Livesay, Matt Herms, Chris Sotomayor, Lucas Gattoni (DC Comics)
- Avengers Academy: Marvel’s Voices, by Anthony Oliveira, Carola Borelli, Bailie Rosenlund, IG Guara, Alba Glez, Elisabetta D’Amico, Pablo Collar, Karen S. Darboe, Carlos Lopez, KJ Díaz, Ian Herring, Frank William, Ariana Maher, Joe Caramagna (Marvel Infinity Comics)
- Captain Marvel, by Alyssa Wong, Jan Bazaldua, Ruairí Coleman, Roberto Poggi, Bryan Valenza, Carlos Lopez, Ariana Maher (Marvel Comics)
- I Heart Skull-Crusher, by Josie Campbell, Alessio Zonno, Angel De Santiago, Jim Campbell (BOOM! Studios)
- The Nice House by the Sea, by James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire, Andworld Design (DC Comics)
- NYX, by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Francesco Mortarino, Enid Balám, Elisabetta D’Amico, Michael Shelfer, Raúl Angulo, Joe Sabino (Marvel Comics)
- The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos, by Tate Brombal based on an idea by James Tynion IV, Isaac Goodhart, Soo Lee, Naomi Franq, Miquel Muerto, Patricio Delpeche, Héctor Barros, Aditya Bidikar (Dark Horse Comics)
- Poison Ivy, by G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Luana Vecchio, Haining, Arif Prianto, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (DC Comics)
- Spectregraph, by James Tynion IV, Christian Ward, Aditya Bidikar (DSTLRY)
Outstanding Original Graphic Novel/Anthology
- Becoming Who We Are: Real Stories About Growing Up Trans, [anthology] (A Wave Blue World)
- Ash’s Cabin, by Jen Wang (First Second)
- Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story, by Nicole Maines, Rye Hickman (DC Comics)
- Deadendia: The Divine Order, by Hamish Steele (Union Square & Co.)
- The Deep Dark, by Molly Knox Ostertag (Graphix)
- The Fox Maidens, by Robin Ha (HarperAlley)
- Lunar Boy, by Jes Wibowo and Cin Wibowo (HarperAlley)
- My Fairy Godfather, by Robert Mailer Anderson, Jon Sack (Fantagraphics)
- The Ribbon Skirt, by Cameron Mukwa (Graphix)
- The Science of Ghosts, by Lilah Sturges, El Garing, Alitha Martinez, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Jimmy Betancourt (Legendary Comics)
My thoughts
The MCU TV spin-off “Agatha All Along” won for the Outstanding New Series category. It beat the other animation/comics-related nominee, “Hazbin Hotel,” an adult animated series about Lucifer’s daughter running a hotel to redeem condemned souls sent to, well, “the bad place.”
In Outstanding Children’s Programming, “The Fairly OddParents” reboot won. Cosmo and Wanda beat: “Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures”; the recent “Strawberry Shortcake” reboot (Aunt Praline is Strawberry’s aunt; the episode sees Aunt Praline having a date with another woman); and “Monster High,” whose comic spin-off has a Pride Month special.
Meanwhile, in live-action kids and family programming, Netflix’s adaptation of the “Heartstopper” graphic novel series beat the live-action adaptation of “The Loud House.” For animated kids and family programming, Netflix’s “Jurassic World: Chaos Theory” won. Most of the other nominees were from Hulu or Disney+, including “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” “The Bravest Knight,” and last year’s GLAAD Media Award winner “Hailey’s On It!” That last one’s now purged from Disney+, presumably to save Disney money on paying royalties.
Over in comics, DC’s “Suicide Squad: Dream Team” is this year’s comic book winner, beating “Avengers Academy,” “Captain Marvel,” and an Alan Scott comic. For graphic novels, the winner is “Becoming Who We Are: Real Stories About Growing Up Trans,” an anthology. One of the graphic novel nominees is “Deadendia,” the comic on which 2023 GLAAD Media Award winner “Dead End: Paranormal Park“ is based on.
LGBTQ media representation in the Trump 2.0 era
Again, with the Trump administration aggressively pressuring companies to undo diversity efforts, I worry animated cartoons aimed at kids (and perhaps even adults) will start eliminating LGBTQ representation to appease these bigoted bullies. I’d hate to see things resemble the 90s, when the only gay characters in cartoons were stereotypes, closeted, and/or treated as punchlines. Modern cartoons like the “She-Ra” reboot, “The Owl House,” and “The Loud House” are a far cry in terms of LGBTQ representation from 90s shows like “The Simpsons” and “South Park” (both still on the air, I know).
Meanwhile, while I expect similar pressure on comics publishers (especially the major ones like Scholastic, Marvel, and DC), the situation might be (slightly) better. There’s a larger number of comic publishers and comic-related outlets, versus American animation dominated by Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Comcast. Also, there’s a lower bar for entry; anyone can publish a comic, including as a webcomic online. Back in the 90s, comics had much better LGBTQ representation than animation (see: “Dykes to Watch Out For,” Pied Piper in “The Flash,” etc.). Today, there’s a much bigger volume of comics with LGBTQ characters, from webcomics and indie publishers to DC and Marvel.
On the non-comics/animation side of things, this year’s Outstanding Film – Streaming or TV winner is a Hallmark movie, “The Groomsmen: Second Chance,” a gay rom-com not set at Christmas. That said, it beat two Christmas entries, rom-com “The Holiday Exchange” (on Amazon Prime Video) and “Season’s Greetings from Cherry Lane” (another Hallmark film). Presumably Hallmark isn’t feeling pressured by either its viewing base, the Trump administration, or would-be rival Great American Family (a conservative Hallmark Channel knock-off started in part because Hallmark started showcasing more diverse casts). It’s still one of the top-rated cable TV channels (even in spite of cable’s decline), and recently revamped its streaming service (“Hallmark+”).
Image: “The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish.” (Nickelodeon)
