The Harvey Awards today revealed the inductees to its Hall of Fame and recipients of the International Spotlight Award and Comics Industry Pioneer honor in advance of its 30th anniversary ceremony during New York Comic Con on Friday, October 5. The inductees into the Hall of Fame will be Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) and Roz Chast (The New Yorker). Harold Sakuishi (BECK) will receive the International Spotlight Award. The event also marks the debut of the Comics Industry Pioneer honor, which will be presented to http://www.sdcomicfest.org/jackie-estrada/.
For legendary comic book artist Dave Gibbons, his career comes full circle with this Hall of Fame award. Thirty years ago, during the first Harvey Awards in 1988, he won a number of awards for his work with Alan Moore on what has now become one of the most acclaimed and honored titles in the history of comics — Watchmen. Gibbons has worked on numerous titles for U.K. and U.S. publishers, including Give Me Liberty, a collaboration with Frank Miller, and Kingsman, which he co-created with Mark Millar and which was adapted into a film franchise.
Since 1978, Roz Chast and her work for The New Yorker have been an essential part of the American humor landscape. Many of her 800-plus cartoons are among the magazine’s most memorable. She is a recipient of the Reuben Award, the highest honor in the cartooning profession, from the National Cartoonists Society. Chast’s 2014 graphic memoir, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, won a National Book Critics Circle Award and was shortlisted for a National Book Award.
Manga artist Harold Sakuishi, recipient of the International Spotlight Award, has published several award-winning works in his native Japan, but will probably forever be entwined with his groundbreaking marriage of manga and indie rock, BECK, which is currently being published in its entirety in English for the first time by Kodansha Comics and comiXology Originals. This is a rare stateside appearance by the manga legend.
Jackie Estrada will receive the inaugural Comics Industry Pioneer honor, which is given to industry professionals who have made significant contributions toward and shown continuing dedication to the advancement of sequential art. She is being honored for her promotion of comics and their creators through her various roles at San Diego Comic-Con over the past five decades, her books of photographs featuring comics creators, her involvement in Friends of Lulu, and her administration of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards since 1990.
The Harvey Awards honors achievement in comic books across a variety of categories and represents one of the industry’s longest-running annual events. Named after Harvey Kurtzman, the late cartooning genius who is best remembered for creating MAD, this year the Harveys return to the birthplace of comics and the lifelong home of Kurtzman himself: New York City. ReedPOP, the world’s leading producer of pop culture events, will host the 2018 Harvey Awards on Friday, October 5, at Shop Studios.
The Harvey Awards Steering Committee is co-chaired by Nellie Kurtzman, John Lind, and Chip Mosher.
