Schwartz, Kurtzman to receive Bill Finger Award

Mark Evanier announced on his blog that Alvin Schwartz and Harvey Kurtzman have been awarded the 2006 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing:

The Bill Finger Award was instituted last year under the supervision of comic book legend Jerry Robinson. The first Finger Awards were presented to veteran writer Arnold Drake, who accepted in person at the 2005 Comic-Con International in San Diego, and to Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman; Siegel's widow Joanne accepted for her late husband.

"There are many fine writers deserving of wider recognition," Evanier notes. "But this year's judges zeroed in on two men whose bodies of work deserve a special salute, just as Bill Finger and his contribution deserve wider recognition.”

Alvin Schwartz is best known for his work during the early years of two of DC's most enduring icons, Batman and Superman. He wrote Batman from 1942 to 1958, and in 1944 he also began a long association with Superman. Schwartz wrote Superman's newspaper strip and many of his comic book appearances. He also created Bizarro. He also worked on Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and many other DC characters before leaving the field of comics in 1958.

Harvey Kurtzman began his career in comics in 1939 and has worked on such EC titles as Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. He is best known as the creator/editor of Mad magazine, the best-selling humor periodical of all time. Kurtzman later worked on other humor magazines, did a long stint on "Little Annie Fanny" for Playboy and authored several books before his death in 1993.

The awards will be presented during the Eisner Awards ceremony July 21 at Comic-Con International: San Diego.