2020 BRAW Comics Jury

Rachel Cooke is an award-winning British journalist. She is a writer at "The Observer", the television critic of the New Statesman, and the author of Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties (Virago). Her essays have been broadcast on BBC radio. She reviews comics and graphic novels every month in "The Observer", and for the past 12 years has helped to organise and judge "The Observer"/Jonathan Cape graphic short story prize, whose winners include such comic artists as Isabel Greenberg and Joff WInterhart. 

Christian Gasser is a Swiss fiction-writer and a professor at the Lucerne University of Art & Design. He is a co-publisher and editor of the independent comics-magazine "STRAPAZIN", he writes and talks about comics in various newspapers (e.g. Neue Zürcher Zeitung) and radio-networks (e.g. SRF2), and he is a member of the "Max und Moritz"-Jury of the international Comic-Festival in Erlangen. His latest books include: Rakkaus! (finnisch: Liebe) (novel, 2014), Comics Deluxe (2012) and animation.ch. Vision and Versatility in Swiss Animated Film (2011). 

Calvin Reid is a senior news editor at "Publishers Weekly" and editor of PW Comics World, PW’s online coverage of the comics and graphic novel marketplace. Reid has covered the book industry as a reporter and editor since he joined "Publishers Weekly" in 1987. He reports on general book industry news and business trends in addition to focusing on digital publishing, small press and indie publishing, and African American publishing in addition to his pioneering coverage of comics and graphic novels in the book trade.

In 2006 at the annual Will Eisner Comics industry Awards, an annual event honouring the best work in comics and graphic novel publishing, Reid was awarded the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award by the San Diego Comic-Con International for his long-time efforts working to raise the understanding and the business profile of graphic novel publishing in the general book trade. In 2011, Reid joined with Heidi MacDonald, editor in chief of "The Beat", and podcast producer Kate Fitzsimons to launch "More to Come", PW’s weekly podcast on comics and graphic novel publishing. Reid has also been a member of the Brooklyn Book Festival graphic novel committee since 2012, and he is a member of the board of trustees of the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Foundation. 

Emilio Varrà founded the Hamelin Cultural Association in 1996. Dedicated to the study of children’s literature, the Association promotes reading and organizes exhibitions and events around comics and illustration. These include BilBOlbul, an international comics festival, now at its twelfth edition. As well as authoring and co-authoring books on writers like Twain and Kipling and comic-book writer/illustrators like Muñoz, Altan and Giardino, Emilio Varrà has published on sector-specific subjects like metaphors of childhood, the development of children’s literature over the last 20 years, the language of contemporary picturebooks, and the history of the graphic novel in the past 30 years. One of the founders of the magazine “Hamelin. Storie, figure, pedagogia”, he also writes for other specialist publications like “Lo straniero” and “Gli Asini”. Since 2005, Emilio has taught Communication Methods and Techniques, Creative Writing, and Children’s Literature and Illustration on the Comics and Illustration course at Bologna’s Fine Arts Academy.