Harvey Kurtzman

Birthdate	October 03, 1924
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York
Deathdate	February 21, 1993
Nationality	American
Area	Writer, artist, editor
Notable works	Mad
Yearsactive	1938–1993
Spouse	Adele Kurtzman 1948-1993 (his death)

Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure (i.e., H. Kurtz-man).

In 1952, he was the founding editor of the comic book Mad. Kurtzman was also known for the long-running Little Annie Fanny stories in Playboy (1962–88), satirizing the very attitudes that Playboy promoted.

Because Mad had a considerable effect on popular culture, Kurtzman was later described by The New York Times as having been "one of the most important figures in postwar America." Director and comedian Terry Gilliam said, “In many ways Harvey was one of the godparents of Monty Python.” Underground cartoonist Robert Crumb asserted that one of Kurtzman's cover images for Humbug "changed my life," and that another Mad cover image “changed the way I saw the world forever!”

He was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1989.

Early life

As a child he drew Ikey and Mikey, a regular comic strip done in chalk on sidewalks. In 1939, Kurtzman entered a cartoon contest in Tip Top Comics, winning a prize of one dollar. Kurtzman attended New York's High School of Music and Art, where he first met future collaborators Will Elder, Harry Chester, Al Jaffee and John Severin. After graduating from Cooper Union, he freelanced for such second-tier comic book companies as Ace and Timely. It was at Timely that he drew his first humorous "Hey Look!" one-pagers, which Timely used whenever an issue was a page short. Kurtzman also produced a comic strip, Silver Linings, which ran in the New York Herald Tribune from March 7 to June 20, 1948. He was strongly influenced by the English cartoonist H. M. Bateman.

EC

Kurtzman found his niche at Bill Gaines' EC Comics, editing the war comics Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales. Kurtzman was known for a painstaking attention to detail, typically sketching full layouts and breakdowns for the stories he assigned to artists and insisting they not deviate from his instructions. Despite (or because of) his autocratic approach, Kurtzman's early 1950s work is still considered among the medium's finest.

The evolution of Mad was marked by Kurtzman's recognition of his own value and talents. The comic book owed its existence to Kurtzman's complaint to publisher Gaines that EC's two editors — himself and Al Feldstein — were being paid substantially different salaries. Gaines pointed out that Feldstein produced more titles for EC and did so more swiftly. The men then agreed that if Kurtzman could create a humor publication, Gaines would raise his pay substantially.

Four years later, amid an industry crackdown on the comic books that EC was producing, Kurtzman received an offer to join the staff of Pageant. When Gaines agreed to expand Mad from a ten-cent comic book to a full-sized 25-cent magazine, Kurtzman stayed with EC. Although retaining Kurtzman was Gaines' prime motivation, this 1955 revamp completely removed Mad from the Comics Code Authority's censorious overview, thereby assuring its survival. Kurtzman remained at the helm of the magazine for only a few issues, but it was long enough to introduce the image soon named Alfred E. Neuman, the publication's famous mascot.

During the early 1950s, Kurtzman became one of the writers for the relaunched Flash Gordon daily comic strip. Soon after, the strip would become one of Mad's targets, when his 1954 "Flesh Garden!" parody was illustrated by Wally Wood.

Departure from Mad

In April 1956, with Mad sales increasing and all of EC's other titles cancelled, Kurtzman demanded a 51% share of Gaines' business. Gaines balked and hired Feldstein to replace Kurtzman as editor. The incident has been a source of controversy ever since. There are some who feel the magazine critically peaked under Kurtzman and never again regained its magic, settling into a predictable formula. There are others who think Kurtzman's own formulaic tendencies would have worn out their welcome more obviously, if not for his early and sudden exit. Kurtzman's departure may have allowed his fans to fantasize about a magazine-format Mad that never was, in which his satiric eye never fogged, as it did outside of Mad.

The "art vs. commerce" showdown between Kurtzman and Gaines (in which Kurtzman had the hero's role of David while Gaines played the vulgarian Goliath) has long been a compelling characterization for some. But it's likely that no 1950s publisher other than Gaines would ever have printed Mad in the first place. Even so, when Kurtzman and Feldstein were producing humor comics at the same time (Feldstein edited EC's lesser sister humor publication Panic), it is generally recognized that the difference in quality was vast. Thus, Feldstein got a reputation as the craftsman who replaced the genius.

However, it's inarguable that Mad's greatest heights of circulation and influence came under Feldstein, while Kurtzman never again recaptured his share of the public's support or edited another magazine of equal success. Nothing Kurtzman produced after his original Mad run approached it for observational wit. In the end, and for all his substantial achievements, Kurtzman's career was forever colored by a sense of "what might have been."

Trump

Kurtzman was also the editor of Trump, published by Hugh Hefner in 1957. It presented Kurtzman's Mad sensibilities in a glossy, upscale magazine format. Trump only lasted for two issues. They reportedly sold well, but were expensive to produce, and publisher Hugh Hefner shut down the project during a costcutting crunch. Kurtzman later led an artists' collective of himself, Will Elder, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth in publishing Humbug. Despite their efforts, and those of business manager Harry Chester, Humbug failed to overcome distribution and financial problems. It folded after 11 issues.

After the demise of Humbug, Kurtzman spent a few years as a freelance contributor to various magazines, including Playboy, Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, TV Guide and Pageant, the magazine that had made a fateful job offer to Kurtzman in 1955.

Help!

Kurtzman's last regular editorial position of note was at the helm of Warren Publishing's Help! from 1962 to 1966. Relying heavily on photography, Help! gave the first national exposure to certain artists and writers who would dominate underground comix later on, such as Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Lynch and Skip Williamson. The magazine also provided a brief forum for John Cleese and Terry Gilliam, who first worked together under Kurtzman's direction, years before Monty Python. In his 1985 film Brazil, Gilliam gave Ian Holm's character, the boss of protagonist Sam Lowry, the name "Kurtzmann". The assistant editor of Help! was Charles Alverson, who later collaborated with Gilliam on the screenplay for Jabberwocky (1977).

The most notorious article to appear in Help! was "Goodman Beaver Goes Playboy!", a ribald parody of Archie Comics that resulted in a lawsuit from Archie's publisher. Despite a talented roster of friends and contributors including Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Gloria Steinem and Gahan Wilson, along with the above names, the magazine folded after 26 issues.

Kurtzman's career remained eclectic. His Little Annie Fanny began its 26-year run in Playboy in 1962, though some admirers felt it was "known more for its lavish production values than its humor."

References

External links

Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Harvey Kurtzman

Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. profile: Harvey Kurtzman

Kitchen, Lind & Associates: Harvey Kurtzman

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World; Considering the Influence of Harvey Kurtzman

Squa Tront #5">"Kurtzman on Sesame Street" from Squa Tront #5

Category:1924 births Category:1993 deaths Category:American cartoonists Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:American comics artists Category:American humorists Category:American Jews Category:American magazine editors Category:Bill Finger Award winners Category:Comic book company founders Category:Jewish American writers Category:Mad (magazine) Category:People from Brooklyn Category:School of Visual Arts faculty Category:Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees Category:Place of birth missing