Clippings

“There’s always been something very special about the Harveys,” Gaiman recalls. “I remember how thrilled I was, first to be nominated in 1991, and then, a year later, to win my first Harvey Award: partly because it really is the professionals’ award, and partly because it’s named after Harvey Kurtzman.”

“I’m very much looking forward to the event, and hope that I can think of something sensible yet entertaining to say in my keynote speech,” says Gaiman. “Failing that I have until June 26th to learn how to make balloon animals.”

Gaiman has twice earned a HARVEY AWARD as the year’s Best Writer for his work on The Sandman comics series for DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. Gaiman’s work in comics during the past year includes Endless Nights, the latest Sandman graphic novel, as well as the comics series 1602 for Marvel Comics’ Marvel Knights imprint.

Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the HARVEY AWARDS are one of the comics industry’s oldest and most respected awards for recognizing outstanding work in comics and sequential art. Each year, nominees and winners of the HARVEY AWARDS are selected exclusively by comics creators – those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the sequential art field. Nominations for this year’s HARVEY AWARDS (for works published between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2003) will be accepted up until midnight Friday, February 13, with Final Ballots to be distributed to all qualifying professionals in early Spring.

“We are all delighted and thrilled that Neil Gaiman has agreed to be this year’s keynote speaker,” says MoCCA Trustee and HARVEY AWARDS Committee Chairwoman Nellie Kurtzman. “I’m sure Neil will do a terrific job since — as a past Harvey Awards nominee and winner himself he knows just how special it is to have one’s work recognized and honored in this way by fellow comics industry professionals.”

Winners of this year’s HARVEY AWARDS will be announced on the night of June 26 during a banquet to be held at the historic Puck Building in downtown New York City as part of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s Third Annual MoCCA Art Festival weekend.