SVA alumnus Brendan Leach’s (MFA 2010 Illustration as Visual Essay) Pterodactyl Hunters took home the Outstanding Comic prize at the recent 2012 Ignatz Awards. According to Top Shelf Productions, which publishes the comic, “Pterodactyl Hunters is a story of sibling rivalry and family tradition in a rapidly changing world: a version of 1904 New York where generations of working-class hot-air-balloonists take to the skies each night to defend their city from a dwindling population of pterodactyls.”

The prestigious Ignatz Awards, named after the character in the classic comic strip Krazy Kat by George Herriman, recognizes outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. In addition to winning the 2012 Ignatz Award, Leach’s Pterodactyl Hunters won a Xeric Award in 2010 and was included in Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Comics of 2011.