Art from The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

The 53rd Academy Awards was pretty much a snoozefest. If you sat through the whole 8-hour (or so it seemed) broadcast than you probably won’t even want to think about how you spent your Sunday evening. No surprises in the major categories, zero chemistry between hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway (although on her own Hathaway was terrifically charming), an awful, awful Celine Dion performance. BUT!

But Shaun Tan won an Academy Award.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

Sorry to geek out, but Tan is the ultra-talented graphic novelist behind The Arrival, among others. It’s great to see a graphic novelist win an Oscar (it’s for an animated short based on his book The Lost Thing); it was one of the few unexpected moments of the whole thing. Although, we hadn’t even been aware he was nominated for something.

Have any other graphic novelists been nominated for Academy Awards? We’ll have to look into that.

Shaun Tan art from The Lost Thing