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known
for being the creator of MAD,
first as a wild
color comic book (1952), then a long-running magazine, a publication
praised widely for its contribution to the development of American
humor and satire during
the 20th century. "MAD" clearly reflected Kurtzman's
creative sensibility which was "not for women, children
or sissies!" For Kurtzman the cartoonist, the experience
was also pivotal as it confirmed that his best work resulted when
he had control over the important relationship between picture
and text.
Harvey Kurtzman was born in 1924. His first comic effort,
Ikey and Mikey, was done in
chalk of the streets of his hometown, Brooklyn, New York, while
he was in his teens. After graduating from the High School of
Music and Art in 1942, Kurtzman worked briefly as an artist's
assistant for Lou Ferstadt who produced comic features distributed
by diverse publishers. Kurtzman then spent two years in the army
and returned to a transformed comic book industry: freelance production
dominated work distributed by publishers. It was at this time
that Kurtzman found work freelancing for Timely
Comics. With Stan Lee as his editor, Kurtzman enjoyed
significant artistic freedom (which was atypical in an industry
that valued consistency) and this allowed him to develop his storytelling
and artistic skills. "Hey Look!,"
among other work, was created during this period.
In
1949, Kurtzman joined EC (Entertaining
Comics) where he eventually curtailed his work as a cartoonist
to focus on editing and writing. In these capacities, Kurtzman
deployed his perfectionist tendency to guide the further development
of Two Fisted Tales which
he created in 1950. "Two Fisted Tales" was based on
scrupulously researched true war stories from throughout history,
including the Korean War. "Two Fisted Tales" continues
to be considered as one of the best war (some would say anti-war)
comics ever published. "Two Fisted Tales" lead to other
war-related comics and Kurtzman also created and/or edited a variety
of other comics at EC including science fiction, horror, western
genre comics and educational work.
Kurtzman's
work at EC helped the publishing company to expand its content
beyond its initial offering of science fiction and horror titles.
MAD was launched by EC in
October, 1952 and was part of this effort. "MAD" was
also a direct reflection of Kurtzman's desire to create humorous
comics for adults. Kurtzman edited and contributed to the first
28 issues of "MAD" published as of September, 1956 when
Kurtzman left EC. At that time, the sales of "MAD" surpassed
those of any other EC title. "MAD" remains an American
institution.
Kurtzman
quickly applied the satirical skills he developed while editing
"MAD". He first joined with Hugh Hefner to publish Trump
which was intended as a more sophisticated version of "MAD".
It featured work of several artists and writers with whom Kurtzman
had worked previously including his longtime friends Will Elder,
Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee, among others.
Hefner, with "Playboy" still in its infancy, was unable
to sustain "Trump" which he killed after only two glorious
issues. Kurtzman then joined with several creators to launch their
own humor magazine, Humbug,
in 1957. This hardscrabble effort survived eleven issues, after
which Kurtzman joined with publisher Jim Warren to start "Help!"
magazine in 1960.
Help!
continued Kurtzman's satirical focus and marked a high point of
his influence on humor/satire content. An impressive roster of
cartoonists was joined by leading comedy writers and performers
as contributors to "Help!". Will Elder, Arnold
Roth and Gahan Wilson were among the notable cartoonist contributors.
Jackie Gleason, Ernie Kovacs, Mort Sahl, Jerry Lewis, John
Cleese and Jonathon Winters were among the comedian contributors.
The list of writers is equally impressive: Woody Allen, Ray
Bradbury and Terry Gilliam and many, many more. "Help"
also included a "Public Gallery"
that offered the initial publication opportunities for several
contributors who would go on to make important contributions to
comics and humor including Terry Gilliam, Gilbert Shelton and
Robert Crumb.
"Help!"
ceased publication in 1965 by which time Kurtzman had established
another key comic feature: Little Annie
Fanny. This lavish mulit-page painted comic was published
regularly in "Playboy" and represented the first time
that a comic strip was published specifically for an adult audience.
Additionally, this work continued Kurtzman's satiric approach
as it took on topical issues with special attention paid to morality.
Will Elder worked with Kurtzman to create most of the "Little
Annie Fanny" strips that were published over the next 26
years and other artists also contributed including Jack Davis
and Al Jaffee.
Beginning
in the 1980's, many of Kurtzman's classic works were collected,
including his visionary 1959 graphic novel, Jungle Book
(Kitchen Sink Press); collections of "MAD", Two-Fisted
Tales and Frontline Combat (Russ Cochran/Gemstone),
Goodman Beaver (Kitchen Sink Press), Flash Gordon: 1951-1952
(Kitchen Sink Press); Fraom Aargh to Zap!: Harvey Kurtzman's
Visual History of Comics (Prentice Hall and Kitchen Sink Press),
Hey Look! (Kitchen Sink Press); Little Annie Fanny (Dark
Horse Comics); and The Grasshopper and The Ant (Denis Kitchen
Publishing).
One
of the comics industry's two most prestigiuos annual awards (along
with the Eisner Award), is the Harvey
Award, named after Kurtzman. Kurtzman was recognized
during his lifetime by numerous awards, including an Ink Pot Award
for Lifetime Achievement at the 1977 San Diego Comics Convention,
an Ignatz Gold Brick (Lucca, Italy) and a good number of Eisner
and -- yes -- Harvey Awards.
Harvey
Kurtzman passed away in 1993. He is survived by his widow
Adele (they met when she was
Stan Lee's assistant at Timely Comics), three daughters, Meredith,
Elizabeth, and Nellie and a son, Pete.
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