Neil Gaiman, Top Comics Of 2021 Honored At Harvey Awards

Some of the best comics and graphic novels from around the world were honored last night at the 34th annual Harvey Awards held at New York Comic Con. The Good Asian Volume 1 by Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexander Tefangi, published by Image Comics, took the prestigious “Book of the Year” award in a field of 10 strong candidates, and the entire slate of winners showcased the diversity of content and creators that characterize today’s industry.

The ceremony took place in the River Pavillion of the Javits Center on Friday night, after most of New York Comic Con had wrapped up for the day. The award is named for legendary cartoonist Havey Kurtzman, whose satirical work including Mad, Trump and Help! changed the course of American humor across all media. Kurtzman’s daughter Nellie serves on the governing board of the Awards committee.

The Harvey Awards honor works in several categories, as well as naming selected creators into the Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement. This year’s Hall of Fame inductees included longtime writer/editor Roy Thomas, who succeeded Stan Lee at the helm of Marvel in the 1970s and shepherded some of the company’s major characters on the stage; underground cartoonist Gilbert Shelton, creator of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers; Marge Buell, a groundbreaking woman artist and creator of the proto-feminist icon “Little Lulu” in the mid-20th century, and superstar fantasy author Neil Gaiman, whose signature creation Sandman came out from DC and Vertigo comics starting in the late 1980s.

Buell, who died in 1993, was represented by her son Paul, who gave a heartfelt remembrance of his mother’s spirit, perseverance and work ethic. Thomas and Shelton accepted in absentia, providing prepared remarks. Gaiman was present at the ceremony, where he warmly greeted friends and colleagues from his early days in the comics industry. He was inducted by his longtime editor, Karen Berger, and remarked that he was glad that after all these years, he was “still allowed to make stuff up.”

The Marvel/Disney streaming show Ms. Marvel won the Harvey for best adapted work. Presenter Vivek Tiwary celebrated the show’s handling of the traumatic partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, an event etched in the culture of people of Indian origin around the world, but rarely addressed in western media. “I accept this on behalf of all brown people everywhere.”

Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh took home the Harvey for best Children’s or Young Adult Book for their imaginative graphic novel Squire (HarperAlley), featuring a young girl’s efforts to become a knight in an alternative history of the Middle East.

Other winners on the night included Lore Olympus, the best-selling Webtoon comic by Rachel Smyth, for best digital work, Tasuki Fujimoto’s raucous Chainsaw Man (Viz Media) for best manga, and Sweet Paprika by Mirka Andolfo (Image Comics) for best international book.

This was the first in-person awards ceremony since 2019, and the several hundred industry professionals in attendance seemed delighted to get together and celebrate their shared love of the artform on a beautiful evening in New York.