BALTIMORE, MD (Feb 16, 2009) -- The Executive Committees of the Harvey Awards and the Baltimore Comic-Con are proud to present the official Nomination Ballot for this year's Harvey Awards. Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, one of the industry's most innovative talents, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art.  

Ballots can be downloaded from HarveyAwards.org and completed forms can be e-mailed to harveyballots@hotmail.com.  Ballots are due for submission by Friday, March 27th.

In addition, Scott Kurtz has been announced as the Master of Ceremonies for the Harvey Awards dinner and ceremony.  

"Scott has been a part of the Harvey Awards since they have been in Baltimore.  As both a nominee and presenter, Scott brought his unique sense of humor and fun to the ceremony. We are all looking forward to him bringing the same energy  to the stage as the host of the show," said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Scott Kurtz has been creating his own comic strips since he got hooked on Garfield in the 4th grade. In 1998, his comic strip PvP debuted on the world wide web (pvponline.com) with 700 daily readers. Over the last 10 years, PvP has grown into a genuine Internet phenomenon, growing in readership to an estimated 150,000 readers per day, a monthly title from Image comics, nominated for Harvey Award as Best Online Comics Work in 2006 and 2007, and winning the Eisner Award for best digital comic in 2006. Scott co-wrote the book "How To Make Webcomics" and co-founded webcomics.com to help assist others in forging their own creative destinies.

The Harvey Awards will be presented on October 10th, 2009 in Baltimore as part of the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are selected exclusively by creators - those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. The Harvey Awards are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.

Professionals who participate will be joining nearly 2,000 other comics' professionals in honoring the outstanding achievements in comics for 2008.   Your participation in completing this Nominating Ballot will allow the Harvey Awards Committee to place before you a Final Ballot which reflects your candidates for the most outstanding comics work of 2008.

As in 2007 and 2008, attendees of Harvey Awards Ceremonies will receive a Hollywood style swag bag.  Last years bag included "The MAD Archives" vol. 1 from DC Comics, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" from Amulet Books, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., "Beowulf" Trade Paperback, based on the screenplay by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary from IDW, "Creator Chronicles Preview DVD Featuring Michael Golden" from Woodcrest Productions and Eva Ink, "Stephen King's Dark Tower : The Gunslinger Born", courtesy of Cards, Comics, and Collectibles & The Baltimore Comic-Con, a Toon Tumbler drinking glass from Popfun merchandising, and an exclusive Harvey Awards keychain from LaserMach

We look forward to your participation and input in this process, and we look forward to seeing you at the Baltimore Comic-Con and the Harvey Awards.