Saga, Fifth Beatle Win at Harvey Awards

The Harvey Awards were announced on the night of Saturday, September 6^th, during the Baltimore Comic Con. Some awards were not surprising as Saga from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (published by Image Comics) continued to rack up awards, winning four. There were some mild surprising, though. The Fifth Beatle, the story of Beatles producer Brian Epstein, from Vivek Tiwary, Andrew Robinson, and Kyle Baker won two awards – “Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalist Presentation” and “Best Graphic Original Album.”     Saga won perhaps the biggest Harvey Award of the night, “Best Limited or Continuing Series.” Brian K Vaughan won “Best Writer” for Saga, and Fiona Staples won “Best Artist” and “Best Cover Artist.” Sex Criminals (Image Comics), a new comic from Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, added to its accolades, getting “Best New Series” and Zdarsky won for “Most Promising New Talent.” Fraction was also honored for writing Marvel Comics’ Hawkeye #11 (“Pizza Is My Business”), which won “Best Single Issue or Story.”   One of the other big Harvey Awards of the night – “Best Cartoonist” – went to Paul Pope for Battling Boy, from the publisher First Second. Dark Horse Presents won “Best Anthology” and Adventure Time comic from KaBOOM! won “Special Award for Humor in Comics” and “Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers.” A number of art specialists were awarded too. “Best Letterer” went to Terry Moore (Rachel Rising), “Best Colorist” was awarded to Dave Stewart (Hellboy: The Midnight Circus), and “Best Inker” was given to Wade Von Grawbadger (All New X-Men).     It is interesting that a number of the Harvey Award winners are the same as the Eisner Awards, which were given out at San Diego Comic Con in July. That seems to speak to the fact that there are some comics and graphic novels being produced that are receiving wide and consistent praise.