The Harvey Award nominations have been announced, and the Best American Edition of Foreign Material shouldn’t make people feel ashamed of themselves. That’s a nice change of pace.
Speaking of upcoming comics awards programs, it’s almost Eisner time. Back when the nominees were announced, I ran will win/should win polls for the Best U.S. Edition of International Material-Asia. I thought I’d check back and see how those panned out, and the clear winner of both is Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka (Viz), written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa and inspired by the work of Osamu Tezuka. This seems likely enough, as Eisner voters have always appreciated Tezuka, and they’ve come this close to giving Urasawa a prize several times. (Monster was nominated repeatedly, and Urasawa is also nominated in the Best Writer/Artist category.) Now they can honor both at the same time.
If I had my way, the Asia prize would go to Oishinbo and Urasawa would get the Writer/Artist nod, and if I really had my way, voters would have had the chance to honor Kaoru Mori’s Emma (CMX), but…