Taking a short break at work today to browse comics news, I came across the release of the nominations for this year's Harvey Awards (eligible books were those published in 2008). One nomination on the list stood out to me above the rest, as it hardly sounded like standard award-winning fare, to put it mildly. Yet there it was in the "Best Single Issue or Story" category--something called Nascar Heroes #5.And an artist on that series, Matt Cassan, was even nominated for "Best New Talent!"
Instantly my intrigue was triggered. A Nascar-sponsored comic nominated for an industry award? Could something that seemed more better suited for a Happy Meal tie-in than serious reading actually be good? It wasn't the craziest notion in the world. After all, the superhero comics I love were once (and still might be) considered kid stuff by the public at large. Maybe some up-and-coming Alan Moore or Grant Morrison was working his way up the industry ladder and had crafted a transcendent tale hiding behind the facade of a licensed property. One that boiled the Nascar Heroes, along with issue 5's Nascar Villians, down to their true essence.
Sadly, a quick Google search for the issue turned up nothing in the way of reviews for this issue. The only relevant hit at the time was John Nacinovich's Twitter entry, wondering the same thing as me. I did, however, come across a scathing critique of issue #1 on the blog Polite Dissent. Not too promising for validating the quality of the series' fifth installment...Well, it seems that such perplexing Harvey noms are a yearly occurrence. Comments on another blog, The Beat, bore this out, referencing years past when offerings from Crossgen and Disney dominated the noms list. There appears to be quite a history of publishers and creators abusing their Harvey voting privileges to promote their own material. Contrast this to the Eisners, which still decide winners via peer voting but hand out their nominations based on the work of a closed committee. It isn't simply a matter of ballot stuffing, as Johanna Draper Carlson notes on Comics Worth Reading. It's more due to a lack of interest in Harvey participation by the majority of creators, leaving the voting mainly up to those looking to self-hype.
And to a certain extent, the ploy works. I definitely didn't wake up this morning expecting to discuss a Nascar comic book. But when it comes down to it, those in the know don't regard the Harvey Award nominations as a reliable source for finding quality comics. If the Eisner Awards are comics' Oscars, then the Harveys might as well be the MTV Movie Awards.
