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Harvey Awards Induct Osamu Tezuka Into Hall of Fame

The Harvey Awards, which honors outstanding work in comics and sequential art, announced on Monday that the awards will induct "God of Manga" Osamu Tezuka into its Hall of Fame, alongside American illustrator Jill Thompson, and the four founders of African-American comics collective Milestone Media.

Tezuka was a prolific manga artist who drew numerous influential works, including Astro Boy, Jungle Emperor Leo, Black Jack, Princess Knight, Dororo, and Phoenix among many others. These works would go on to inspire following generations in manga storytelling and art, which would earn him the moniker "The God of Manga." Equally significant is his founding of the Mushi Production studio, where he would helm the production of anime adaptations of much of his manga, and other original productions. Perhaps most significant of these was Astro Boy, based on Tezuka's manga, which became Japan's first half-hour animated series. The show pioneered animation techniques and production methods that gave rise to the earliest aesthetics and styles of television anime.

Unlike the Eisner Awards and other awards in the North American comic book industry, the Harvey Awards are nominated and selected by the comic book professionals themselves.

The Harvey Awards will have a digital event this year, and the ceremony will have a livestream during New York Comic Con's Metaverse digital event on October 8-11. The organizers of the Harvey Awards will announce details about the awards ceremony at a later date.

Manga nominees for the Harvey Awards' Best Manga category this year include Gou Tanabe's H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains Of Madness, Yoshiharu Tsuge's The Man Without Talent, Moto Hagio's The Poe Clan, Kousuke Oono's The Way of the Househusband, and Kamome Shirahama's Witch Hat Atelier. The Harvey Awards added the Best Manga category in 2018. Kabi Nagata's My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness manga won the first award in this category. Kōhei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia won the award last year.

Sources: Polygon (Susana Polo), Funimation (Kathleen Townsend)