Written by Guy LeCharles GonzalezJune 1, 2006

INFO: 2006 Harvey Award Nominees

Interesting choices in what is essentially the comics version of the Oscars, “the only industry awards both nominated by and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.”

And the nominees for the 2006 Harvey Awards are…

An interestingly mixed bag here, including my personal favorite, Joshua Hale Fialkov for his work on the excellent Elk’s Run. My guess is Brubaker takes the honors here, though.

The Elk’s Run team’s get out the vote campaign seems to have worked as Noel Tuazon joins an impressive list of established artists. Cho and Finch are even more surprising than Bendis’ nomination in the Best Writer category, though, and I’m expecting Williams III to take the honors here.

Cho is a stretch here, fitting the technical definition, I guess, but wouldn’t his Liberty Meadows been a more appropriate reference? As I’m unfamiliar with the latter two nominees, I’ll ignore the buzz I’ve seen about their work and go with Kovalic in this category.

I always find judging letterers difficult, as at their best, you shouldn’t really notice their work. A complete toss-up for me, I’ll go with Starking purely on name recognition.

How do you get nominated as an inker for inking your own work? I don’t get Burns’ presence here; if anything, he should have been up for Best Cartoonist instead of Cho. Another toss-up as inking has always been a mysterious art to me, I’m going with Burns as a protest vote.

Ok, clearly Cho must have had a get out the vote effort, too, because I just can’t believe Shanna was as beloved as its multiple nominations seem to imply. The Lone and Level Sands was a beautiful piece of work, so Jennifer Rodgers should get the nod here. It’ll probably be Laura Martin, though.

Nice to see Datsun Tran’s work be acknowledged here, but it’d have to be considered an upset if anyone other than James Jean wins this one.

Tough one. Not having read Night Fisher, this is a toss-up between Fialkov and A. David Lewis. Lewis may get the nod on the strength of having a completed work to judge, but either one is deserving, IMO.

A nice mix here, though MA: FF making the list is a total surprise! I enjoyed Dramacon, and Young Avengers has been a fun ride so far, but I think the nod has to go to X-Factor which is an excellent example of what corporate comics are capable of in the right hands. Of course, I haven’t finished reading The Surrogates yet, so my opinion may change.

Weird that Elk’s Run made this list but not Best New Series, where it probably stood a better chance of winning, especially considering only half of the issues have been released. Either way, it’s a dark horse that will likely have to be satisfied with the nomination as my guess is the Brubaker love carries over here and Captain America gets the nod.

The Boondocks has been too up-and-down over the past year or so, and I love me some Maakies, but it’d be great if The K Chronicles pulled off the victory!

Marvel Monsters was fun, so I’m glad to see it get some recognition here, but Project Superior was everything an anthology should be.

Combat Zone?!?! Are you f’n serious? Is that some reverse-PC thing or what, because it was a pedestrian effort at best. Since I haven’t read the latter three nominees yet, The Lone and Level Sands is my pick, not just by default, but because it was an excellent piece of work.

I’ll go with Black Hole since it’s the only one I’ve read! Where the hell is La Perdida, though? I hope it simply didn’t make whatever the cutoff was and wasn’t actually snubbed. Deogratias better be nominated here next year.

House of M #8? #7 maybe, if it has to be nominated at all, but not #8. Captain America #7 was actually a pretty good stand-alone issue, but its focus on Nomad instead of the title character makes it an awkward pick. I’m going with Elk’s Run #3 because of the “Oh, shit!” factor, but I’m guessing Brubaker takes this one, too.

[Other categories I have no opinion on…]

BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT
FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS | Marvel Comics
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: GOLDEN AGE ALL-WINNERS, VOLUME 1 | Marvel Comics
LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND: SO MANY SPLENDID SUNDAYS | Sunday Press Books
COMPLETE PEANUTS | Fantagraphics Books
WALT AND SKEEZIX | Drawn and Quarterly

SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR IN COMICS
Kyle Baker | PLASTIC MAN DC Comics
James Kolchalka | SUPER F*CKERS Top Shelf and www.americanelf.com
John Kovalic | DORK TOWER Dork Storm Press
Marc Sumerak | FANTASTIC FOUR PRESENTS: FRANKLIN RICHARDS, SON OF A GENIUS Marvel Comics
Zeb Wells | NEW WARRIORS Marvel Comics

SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION
WATCHMEN: THE ABSOLUTE EDITION DC Comics
ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY Pantheon Books
EARTH X HARDCOVER Marvel Comics
FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS Marvel Comics
LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND: SO MANY SPLENDID SUNDAYS Sunday Press Books

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION
ALTER EGO | TwoMorrows
COMIC BOOK ARTIST Top Shelf
COMICS JOURNAL | Fantagraphics Books
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT | Marvel Comics
WIZARD | Wizard Entertainment

For additional information about Harvey Kurtzman and the Harvey Awards, visit www.harveyawards.org.

For additional information about the Baltimore Comic-Con, visit www.comicon.com/baltimore

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Written by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.

1 comment

Emperor Nerd has written: June 1, 2006 at 1:25 pm Reply

I agree with you on X-Factor as best new book. Brian K. Vaughn getting 2 of the 5 best series nods is pretty impressive. No Scott Pilgrim? That is surprising. But for best single issue I still go with Daredevil #79. Other than that, I’m not familiar with much of the non mainstream stuff.

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INFO: 2006 Harvey Award Nominees

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