Say What? Harvey Awards Nominate Witchblade Manga

From Anime News Network: Okay, after the nice showing of manga nominations for the 2008 Eisner Awards, it was something short of disappointing to see the other major comics awards nominate two! (compared to 13 Eisner-nominated manga) manga titles for the 2008 Harvey Awards, and incredibly mediocre ones at that: Witchblade Takeru (which is a manga adaptation of an American comics series) from Top Cow Productions, and Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet from Harry N. Abrams in the Best American Edition of Foreign Material category.

Okay, that was harsh. Neither is completely horrible. But to call those two titles the best examples of manga that was published in the U.S. this past year requires a stretch of the imagination that I just can't muster. It reminds me of the year that the Grammys gave out its first Best Metal Album award and it went to Jethro Tull over Metallica. Lame. And I'm not the only one that thinks so.

The voting for the 2008 Harvey Awards is happening now through August 15, 2008, and is "open to anyone involved in a creative capacity within the comics field." If write-in votes are allowed, or even if they're not, I recommend voting for Naruto, Bleach or Fruits Basket in every category, if only as a symbolic protest.

The Harvey Awards winners will be announced on September 27, 2008 at the 2008 Baltimore Comic-Con.

Image credit: © Top Cow Productions / Yasuko Kobayashi