Legder Awards 2006 - Independent Press Title of the Year

In terms of nominating great independent books (those of commercial formatting) its impossible to go past Witch King - Read, Abstruse, Magahelles, Close, Rahner, Kwok have but together a beautiful book. Whilst it is not my type of thing, the art and colour are just amazing.
I'd be a bad publisher if I didn't put Sureshot Presents in the mix, there have been 3 really strong efforts released this year that I'm insanely proud of.
Back to the Phosphorecent Comics, I'm a very big fan of Azerath and think Daniel and Ryan have done great work, whilst this year the stories have been a bit light without much direction (especially after the marketplace issue) I think its a symptom of the 4 issues a year publishing schedule, if this came out monthly/bimonthly then i could handle having such slight issues but with so few issues published a year its slightly frustrating that nothing really happened. The Azerath graphic novel might be worth a nomination as well.
As I said couple days back Generations 2006 was probably the strongest issue yet, part of me wishes that the book had the ferocity of Oztaku's marketing.
I think Phatsville is one of the most exciting anthologies released today. There is never a dud strip that looks like its been cobbled together at the last minute, the art always looks finished and professional - and whilst i may not be a fan of some of the art I can appreciate the edginess and rebillious of it and wished there was more of it in Australian comics.
In terms of anthologies I think NeoBragi should get a look. Boosa Nova Baby is also a strong book.
What happens When I Die by Jules Faber is a wonderful deep book that thankfully isn't soggy with angst and emo posturing. It is extremely well written, using metaphor and a nicely paced structure that is very satisfying. Jules also did a very nice painted book in Golgatha#1.
Welcome to Woodville by Shannon Browning was a fun clever book parodying monster films of the 50s, something quite hard to do in a fresh way.
A couple close calls was Matt Godden's Surfing the Deadline and Local Act Comics' Vigil and Afterlife, these books were written well, but the art held it back (Afterlife was well illustrated except it looked like it was a regular 6 page comic which they made into a 24 page comic by making each panel a splash page which is a bit frustrating)