John Byrne, Peter David, Wendy & Richard Pini Among 2025 Harvey Hall Of Fame Inductees

Writer/artist John Byrne, writer Peter David, and Elfquest creators Wendy and Richard Pini, among the inductees to the Harveys Hall of Fame, New York, October 10, 2025.

(c) Luigi Novi (Byrne, David) and courtesy of the Wendy and Richard Pini

The Harvey Awards, given annually at New York Comic Con to recognize excellence in comics and comic-based media, have announced the six new members of their Hall of Fame to be inducted at the annual awards ceremony Friday, October 10. This year’s selections combine fan favorites with groundbreakers and industry pioneers:

• John Byrne, an artist/writer who burst onto the scene in the 1970s and reinvented top-tier characters including the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Superman. Byrne has been less active in comics in the 21^st century, but has a new X-Men graphic novel slated for release by Abrams sometime next year.
• Peter David, a prolific “writer of stuff” for Marvel (The Incredible Hulk), DC (Young Justice, Aquaman) and other publishers, along with a series of Star Trek novels, who died earlier this year after a long period of poor health.
• Patrick McDonnell, best known for the long-running comic strip Mutts, and author of the charming Marvel graphic novel The Super-Hero’s Journey (Abrams).
• Wendy and Richard Pini, writer/artist and publisher, respectively, of Elfquest, one of the first and most successful independently published comics, dating from the 1970s and continuing through the present day.
• Barbara Shermund, one of the first women cartoonists for the New Yorker, whose work defined a certain pre-World War II aesthetic and has recently been rediscovered by comics historians.

According to the organizers of the event, the nominees and their families were surprised and delighted with the news.

“What an astonishing surprise! Wendy and I are honored to be inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame,” said Richard Pini. “We used to wonder why this or that book of ElfQuest always seemed to fly under the ‘award radar.’ This acknowledgement brings the answer into focus. ElfQuest isn’t a single issue or series; rather, it is the cumulative work of both our lives, and we are deeply grateful for the recognition.”

“I’ve loved comics my whole life,” said Patrick McDonnell. “It’s an honor and a thrill to be inducted into the Hall of Fame named for one of the true masters of our unique art form, Harvey Kurtzman. I greatly appreciate this award.”

“Tippity tap tippity tap, and ‘thank you very much,’ might be what you’d hear if Peter’s corporeal form were with us to take a call congratulating him on the Harvey’s Hall of Fame induction, because he’d be simultaneously working on whatever was next,” said Shana David-Massett, acknowledging the posthumous award for her father, Peter David. “The whirring and clicking of a keyboard was part of the soundtrack to life with a writer of so very much stuff and a giver of voices to countless characters, with a sense of humor we will hear in dialogue still yet to be, in more than one universe. ‘Gotta go,’ he’d say, ‘I’m on a deadline.’ A dutiful employee, a world builder, a fan, and a good guy.”

Like the Will Eisner Awards handed out at San Diego Comic-Con, the Harveys are also named for a legendary figure in the business, in this case cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993), the satirical genius behind Mad and many other important works. Kurtzman’s daughter Nellie co-chairs the Harvey Awards steering committee with John Lind and Chip Mosher. Camilla Di Persia, Alex Rae, and Chris D’Lando of ReedPop, the company that puts on New York Comic Con, are coordinating this year’s awards.

Unlike the Eisners, the Harvey Awards appear to have some limits on the number of people inducted annually into the hall of fame.