The name of legendary manga artist Akira Toriyama has been added to the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame, one of the most prestigious honors throughout the comic book industry.
This will be publicly celebrated via the Harvey Awards ceremony at New York Comic Con on Friday, Oct 18, and comes with timing complimentary to the resounding success Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is seeing here in its inaugural week.
The Harvey Awards have been around for some 36 years now and are named after the cartoonist behind Mad magazine, Harvey Kurtzman. The event offers special honors to authors and artists across textual mediums, and is inducting five figures into its Hall of Fame this year.
Toriyama, who passed away earlier in 2024 at the age of 68, will be joined by the likes of Arthur Adams (Uncanny X-Men and Excalibur), Sergio Aragones (Mad magazine and Groo the Wanderer), John Buscema (Marvel), and Larry Hama (G.I. Joe).
Though they’ve been running for over three decades now, the Harvey Awards only somewhat recently added a “Best Manga” category to their list of honors. Before 2018 content like Dragon Ball would have had its best chances in the “Best American Edition of Foreign Material” category, which goes to show how much the event has broadened horizons in recent times.
With a title like “The Father of Shonen Anime,” there’s no question about the gravity of Akira Toriyama’s influence across popular culture. Though his start was in manga, the potency of his characters and narratives was such that it spilled out globally across anime, film, television, video games, and other major mediums.
Indeed the manga artist touched countless international fans during his 45 year career, which is why the world reacted to his passing back in early March. A 360-foot Peruvian mural is one such display of tribute that reflects global appreciation for Toriyama’s work, with the latest coming this Friday at New York Comic Con.