9:20 PM – Still haven’t started yet, looks like they’re starting a bit late. We’ll be online in a sec.

9:30 PM – Just about to start. Here’s a look at the awards room for you!

9:36 PM – Lights just went out and the 2009 Harvey Awards are underway!

9:40 PM – Opening speeches are underway. Special acknowledgments are being made to key BCC staff including Marc Nathan, head honcho of BCC. Also some of the key sponsors of the Harveys.

9:42 PM – Explaining on the online voting process. Between 800 and 900 eligible ballots were received. The highest total in recent memory! A new category is going to be included next year – works intended for a younger audience.

9:44 PM – Master of Ceremonies Scott Kurtz takes the stage amidst staggering applause! He knew at 9 he wanted to be a cartoonist and is the award-winning creator of PvP, which gets 200,000 readers a day.

9:45 PM – A new animated short featuring the Phantom, Dagwood and other comic strip characters parodying Alec Baldwin’s performance in “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Hilarious with Prince Valiant as Baldwin. “ABC – Always Be Cartooning.”

9:49 PM – Okay, NOW Kurtz actually takes the stage. Kris Straub (”Chainsawsuit”) is credited as helping out with the flash animation and voices. “I have just been informed that our attendance this evening did not meet Diamond’s minimum requirements and we have been dropped from their catalog. Too soon?”

9:52 PM – Presenting for Best Letter and Colorist is Barry Kitson. John Workman wins for “Marvel 1985″. Kitson accepts on Workman’s behalf.

9:55 PM – Kitson continues with Best Colorist. The winner is Dave Stewart for “Umbrella Academy: Dallas”. Accepting on behalf of Dave is Scott Allie from Dark Horse comics.

9:57 PM – Scott Kurtz introduces presenter and “Strangers in Paradise” creator Terry Moore to the stage to present Best Syndicated Strip or Panel. Some excerpts from Moore’s presentation: “I’m presenting Best Syndicated Strip or Panel, which I think is really cruel because anyone who’s talked to me for five minutes know that before I got into comic books, I tried to break into comic strips. As everybody knows, comic strips are just a brutal, competitive, body count is huge-business. Then you get home and you have to be funny in six inches. You keep submitting it and nobody likes your six inches!”

10:00 PM – The winner of Best Syndicated Strip or Panel is Mutts by Patrick McDonnell. Scott Kurtz is accepting. “Patrick wishes he could be here tonight but he’s not. So this one is mine.” –Kurtz

10:01 PM – Moore keeps the stage for Best Online Comics Work. Big uproar for every nominee announced here, including Scott Kurtz’s “PvP”. The winner is “High Moon” by Scott O. Brown, Steve Ellis and David Gallaher. Accepting are the creative team for “High Moon”.

10:05 PM – Jim Valentino, who gave Scott Kurtz his shot at Image takes the stage. “I will not be making fun of him tonight,” says Kurtz. Valentino is onstage pretending he just won an Oscar. Valentino is on stage presenting Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

10:09 PM: The winner is “Gus and His Gang” by First Second. “Gus and His Gang” is a French based comic. Moving right along to Best Inker. Lots of applause for all nominees in this category which includes Thor, Buzzboy, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Darkness and All Star Superman.

10:10 PM: The winner is Mark Morales for Thor! He takes the stage amidst uproarious applause. His speech? “Thank you!” and he runs off stage.

10:11 PM: Time for Best New series, presented by Rob Schreck. The Best New Series category has 3 books by Zuda comics. The Harvey goes to…Echo, by Terry Moore. This is Moore’s first Harvey. “When I was in 7th Grade, I went through a shoplifting phase,” he says, amidst laughs. Moore can finally take a Harvey home without smuggling it out.

10:12 PM: Best Graphic Album – Previously Published. The winner is Nat Turner from Abrams Books.

10:15 PM: Rob Leigh presents the award for Special Award for Humor in Comics. The Harvey goes to…Al Jaffee for “Tall Tales”.

10: 17 PM: Best New Talent coming down the line, also presented by Leigh. The winner is…Bryan J.L. Glass for the acclaimed series “The Mice Templar” from Image Comics. Glass, running up to accept his award, trips on the way up to the stage. “I want to campaign that this changes to ‘Breakthrough Talent’ because I published my first written work in 1992,” he says. “A friend of mine said, ‘Well, yeah you’ve been here for 20 years, but your talent has finally caught up!’”

10:20 PM: Next up, after a snafu on the podium with the light comes “Mouse Guard” creator David Petersen presenting the Best Anthology award. The Harvey goes to….”Comic Book Tattoo”, edited by Rantz Hoseley from Image Comics. Joe Keatinge from Image accepts on Hoseley’s behalf. “Comic Book Tattoo” is the anthology inspired by the musical works of Tori Amos.

10:27 PM: The award for Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation is up next, with Petersen still onstage. The Harvey goes to…”Kirby, King of Comics” by Mark Evanier from Abrams Books.

10:29 PM: We’re more than halfway through the 2009 Harvey Awards! Still to come, Best Original Graphic Novel, Best Cartoonist and Best Single Issue.

10:29 PM: “Our next presenter is a Pioneer in comics,” says Kurtz “And by Pioneer I mean it’s possible he gave smallpox to the Indians. Please welcome Steve Englehart.” Englehart is presenting awards for both Best Domestic Reprint Project and Best Cover Artist.

10:32 PM: The winner of the Harvey award is “The Complete Peanuts” published by Fantagraphics Books. Scott Kurtz accepts, graciously, on behalf of Fantagraphics.

10:33 PM: Best Cover Artist is now underway. Lots of big names in this category including Frank Cho, Kenneth Rocafort and Alex Ross. The Harvey, though, goes to “Fables” cover artist James Jean.

10:35 PM: The next award is the Special Award for Excellence in Presentation. The Harvey goes to “Kirby, King of Comics” by Mark Evanier from Abrams Books.

10:38 PM: Best Original Graphic Album is next up, with the Harvey going to “Too Cool To Be Forgotten” from Top Shelf.

10:40 PM: Michael Flynn takes the stage to present a special Hero Initiative Presentation. The Hero Initiative Humanitarian Award this year goes to Neal Adams. For those that don’t know, the Hero Initiative is a nonprofit organization that helps comic veterans by providing financial aid for emergency situations, medical care and many other necessary needs. The room stands to welcome Adams to the stage.

10:45 PM: Adams details his return to comics. He’s handed in 90 pages to DC Comics about a certain caped crusader which is the beginning of a series of graphic novels. Adams illustrated a six-page documentary about Dina Gottliebova-Babbit, an illustrator during the Holocaust who in exchange for sparing herself and her mother from the gas chambers, did illustrations for Nazi death camp director Josef Mengele, known as “The Angel of Death.” The project with inked by Joe Kubert and contains an introduction from Stan Lee. Gottliebova-Babbit survived the Holocaust, along with her mother, and immigrated to the United States and became an animator. She recently passed away on July 29 of this year. Her paintings have not yet been returned to her by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Marvel has printed Adams’ story and Disney will be turning the biography into a motion comic.

10:58 PM: The ending of Adams’ speech – “I don’t know anybody in the comic book business that if I called upon them [to help with this project], they wouldn’t say yes. That’s what I like about the comic book business.”

10:59 PM: “Alright! Back to the chuckles,” says Scott Kurtz, getting back into the swing of things. Chris Staros, head of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, is presenting Best Continuing or Limited Series. This is a star-studded category with “All-Star Superman”, “Captain America”, “Mice Templar”, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Umbrella Academy”. The Havery goes to “All-Star Superman” by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly from DC Comics.

11:01 PM: Accepting on behalf of Morrison and Quietly is DC’s Bob Schreck.

11:02 PM: Chris Claremont is presenting the next award for Best Writer. “The guy who looked at Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s classic X-Men and said, ‘Do you know what this needs? More. Words.’” – Kurtz

11:04 PM: The nominees for this category include Grant Morrison, Ed Brubaker, Kyle Baker, John Gallagher and Jeff Kinney.

11:07 PM: The Harvey goes to…Grant Morrison for “All Star Superman”. Accepting on behalf of Grant is Bob Wayne.

11:08 PM: George Perez presents Best Artist. “You do not have to fill every cover with every hero from that company! Some of us can’t draw feet! If you couldn’t draw feet, there would be a lot of rocks and smoke on your covers.” – Kurtz

11:09 PM: A varied cast of nominees including Frank Quietly and Gabriel Ba, but also Kayle Baker, Jimmy Gownley and Jason Kruse. The Harvey goes to Gabriel Ba for “Umbrella Academy” from Dark Horse. Accepting on behalf of Gabriel Ba is Scott Allie.

11:14 PM: Best Cartoonist is up next, presented by DC Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne.

11:17 PM: The Harvey goes to… Al Jaffee for Tall Tales. This is the second win for Al Jaffee tonight.

11:18 PM: The last award of the night: Best Single Issue or Story presented by the always entertaining Brian Michael Bendis. “Sorry about my voice, but I made out with George Perez the day before the convention,” said Bendis. Perez took the stage with a cold when he presented the award for Best Artist.

11:20 PM: A fitting end to the Harveys, the award goes to “Y: The Last Man” #60 by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra from Vertigo Comics.

11:22 PM: What? There’s a secret award! The Hero Initiative takes the stage. They’ve raised over $100,000.00 at Baltimore alone. Marc Nathan is honored and thanked for his work organizing and running Baltimore Comic-Con for the past 10 years.

11:25 PM: Nathan takes the stage to a standing ovation and thanks the crowd for the award.

That’s it from the Harveys! See you next year!