Harvey vs Eisner

Comicon International is fast approaching, and along with the masses of people that it brings to the San Diego Convention Centre, it also brings the event that many consider to be The Oscars of comics, The Eisners. Named after legendary artist, Will Eisner, the awards are given to those people/titles that are “the best that the comics art form has to offer”. Since their inception in 1988 the Eisner\\\’s have been a yearly tradition at Comic-Con International, with the exception of 1990, where the awards were canceled due to \\\’numerous errors on the ballots\\\’. There are a total of 28(and growing) unique categories and the Eisner Hall of Fame. Each year the winners are determined by votes from creators, publishers, editors, retailers and distributors. Nominees are decided by a panel of five judges that is completely changed from year to year. The judges represent various stakeholders in comics (fans, critics, professionals and retailers). The Eisner\\\’s are not the only comic book award, in fact, the other major award shares a unique history with The Eisner\\\’s.

The physical awards

The Harvey, named after Harvey Kurtzman founding editor of MAD magazine, is also awarded to outstanding achievements in the comic book field. If the Eisner\\\’s are the Oscars of the comic book world, the Harvey\\\’s are the Screen Actor Guild (SAG) awards. Like the SAG\\\’s, the Harvey\\\’s are nominated by professionals who have worked in the field. After the nomination period, the top five (more if ties exist) nominees for each of its 20 categories are compiled and a list is mailed out/available to be downloaded, and voted on by professionals. The awards have been given out at various venues over its history, with the last move being to the Baltimore Comic-con. As with the Eisner\\\’s, the Harvey\\\’s have a hall of fame, named after Jack Kirby.

Speaking of Kirby, why isn\\\’t there a whole body of awards named after him? After all many consider him to be the father of modern superhero comics. The Kirby Awards did exist and at once time were considered and designed to be the equivalent to comic book Oscars. The first awards were given out in 1985 and were operated by Dave Olbrich and Fantagraphics. These awards ran yearly until 1988, when there was a dispute over who would run the awards after Olbrich left Fantagraphics. As part of the solution to this dispute, both Olbrich and Fantagraphics would continue to offer an industry award, but not refer to them as the Kirby\\\’s. Olbrich would begin the Eisner\\\’s in 1988, while Fantagraphics would names theirs the Harvey and also begin awarding them in 88. As acknowledgment of their shared history, both awards have the three members of the old Kirby Award Hall of Fame, Carl Banks, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner as the inaugural members in their respective hall of fame.

The three faces of comic awards (note these are not official logos)

For two major awards, how do the results compare? Thats what I asked myself as I began to pour over all the winners lists from 1988 to 2005. Finding matches were easy for some categories (Best Artist exists in both awards) others called for some compromising and combining of categories so they lined up. Once this was done, I was left with a combined total of 255 awards given out over this period. 77 of the awards matched up, yeidling that the two awards were sympatico 30% of time. On average there are four common winners a year, and most likely in the categories of Best Continuing or Limited series(9 common awards) and least common being Best Inker (1 common award). 2005 was the most common year, as there were 10 matches (but these matches did not happen in the Best Writer, Artist, Cartoonist, New Series categories). Worst year was (excluding 1990, as the Eisner\\\’s didn\\\’t happen that year) was 1993, with only one match in the category of best Letterer. Also interesting to note is that the category of Best single issue/story only has 3 matches. Finally I imagine that 90% of you can now tell that I enjoyed stats in school.

Is there a need for two major award bodies? I\\\’m not to sure. Its interesting that 2005 was such a strong matching year, and if this trend continues than I\\\’d been likely to suggest that the Harvey\\\’s be folded into the Eisner\\\’s as they have more categories and a bigger name recognition due to the location of their announcement. That being said, I like the fact that the Harveys operate like the SAGs, and its a reflection of what professionals find noteworthy, not what five people do. There is a question though as to what constitutes a professional comic book creator. The (unintentional?) roving natures of the Harvey presentation, while making it a scheduling nightmare, also allows more people a chance to see a little bit of history go down.

Any event, if you have a chance to attend the Harvey\\\’s, Eisner\\\’s, Shuster\\\’s or any other event that acknowledges the achievements of those in a field you love, do it. Clap your hands when they read the nominations aloud, and let them, and everyone else know that you appreciate the boundary pushing work they\\\’ve done.

Martin Scherer enjoys reading, thinking and consuming comics in mass amounts. In addition, his theory that \\\’the only good Stacy is a dead Stacy\\\’ has been re-affirmed with his recent reading of Ultimate Spider-Man: Clone Saga and The Death of the Stacys. When he is not reading about the dead Stacy\\\’s in Spider-Man\\\’s life or number crunching, he looks forward to hearing your comments about this, past articles or general questions about comics. Contact him via email, martin@geekscape.net