September 9, 2025

We’re excited to announce members of the CCS community have been nominated for one of comics’ oldest and most prestigious awards—the Harvey Awards! 

The nominees are….

• Best Young Adult Book: HOW IT ALL ENDS by Emma Hunsinger ‘20 (Greenwillow Books)

“Hunsinger explores what it’s like to be an especially inexperienced fish out of water in this vibrant, comedic character sketch.” —Publishers Weekly

Emma teaches drawing at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Her first picture book, MY PARENTS WON’T STOP TALKING, with her wife, acclaimed cartoonist and Vermont’s fifth cartoonist laureate, Tillie Walden ‘16, was featured on NPR’s Best Books of the Year list in 2022. While studying at CCS, Emma published her nonfiction class assignment, “How to Draw a Horse” in The New Yorker. The comic focuses on a young girl’s fascination with drawing horses. She remarks on how difficult it is for artists to draw horses, and how equally difficult it is for her to understand her feelings toward her female classmate. The comic was nominated for an Eisner Award, a National Magazine Award, and a National Cartoonist Society Divisional Award. 

• Best Adaptation from Comic Book/Graphic Novel: BERLIN: THE PLAY (Court Theatre), adapted by Mickle Maher and directed by Charles Newell. Based on BERLIN by faculty member Jason Lutes (Drawn & Quarterly)

“The magic in BERLIN is in the way Lutes conjures, out of old newspapers and photographs, a city so remote from him in time and space… [BERLIN has] an ending so electrifying that I gasped.”—New York Times Book Review

Jason Lutes graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration in 1991, after which he moved to Seattle, where he did art direction and production work for Fantagraphics Books and The Stranger, an alternative weekly paper. His first graphic novel, the critically-acclaimed JAR OF FOOLS, was originally serialized in the pages of The Stranger. Jason went on to produce several comics and short stories, including THE FALL with writer Ed Brubaker, HOUDINI: THE HANDCUFF KING with artist Nick Bertozzi, and critically-acclaimed BERLIN. Under the imprint Lampblack & Brimstone, Jason has published numerous supplements for tabletop role-playing games, most recently THE PERILOUS VOID. Jason has taught at CCS since 2007, where he is faculty chair.

The Harvey Awards are named in tribute to American cartoonist, satirist, and creator of MAD, Harvey Kurtzman (1924–1993). Highlighting and honoring excellence in comic books, graphic novels, manga, and more, the Harveys are industry awards selected by comic and publishing professionals. An institution since 1988, this year’s Harvey Awards return to New York Comic Con on October 10. 

To see the complete list of nominees and to vote, visit harveyawards.com

Congratulations everyone!