Harvey Awards

I've been away from home and office for the past four days (more about that later), without Internet access for most of that time. So it was only upon returning late last night that I learned Mom's Cancer has been nominated for three (!!!) Harvey Awards, which will be announced in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con on September 8. Holy cow! Or, as a cartoonist friend said when he wrote me with the news, "How many awards/nominations do you NEED, man?"

The Harvey Awards are named for Harvey Kurtzman, a creator of MAD Magazine and other pioneering comics work, and sprang from the same wellhead as the Eisner Awards. Both were created after the short-lived (Jack) Kirby Awards faltered in 1987. Like the Eisners, Harveys are nominated and voted on by comics professionals. I've read articles comparing and contrasting the Eisners and Harveys, and confess that the difference is too subtle for me to detect. I'm no historian of comics awards; best I can figure is it's a Shia-Sunni kind of thing or, for "Life of Brian" fans, similar to the schism between followers of the sandal and the gourd. For my part I am genuinely surprised and honored by the recognition, and hope we can all just get along.

Harveys are given in 21 categories. I'm nominated for "Best Artist," "Best Single Issue or Story," and "Best New Talent." A complete list of all the people who are going to beat me is available here. My sincere thanks to the Harvey Awards organizers and the pros who nominated my work. That means a lot.
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