Profile of Harvey Kurtzman on Famous Like Me

Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924 - February 21, 1993) was a U.S. cartoonist and magazine editor. In 1952, he was the founding editor of the comic book Mad for EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines, later creating the magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman. Kurtzman was equally well known for the long-running Little Annie Fanny stories in Playboy magazine from 1962 to 1988, parodying the very attitudes that Playboy promoted. Because Mad had a considerable impact on popular culture, Kurtzman was later described by the New York Times as having been "one of the most important figures in postwar America."

Early years

As a child he drew "Ikey and Mikey," a regular comic strip done in chalk on sidewalks. In 1939, Kurtzman won a contest in Tip Top Comics, the prize for which was the publication of a drawing and one dollar. As a freelance artist-writer during his early years in the comic book industry, his most notable output was a series of humorous one-page fillers called "Hey Look!"

Kurtzman found his niche at 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 ways, Kurtzman's early 1950s work, principally Mad, 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. The men agreed to expand Mad from a ten-cent comic book to a 25-cent magazine, and Kurtzman stayed, preferring to run his own title. Although retaining Kurtzman was Gaines' prime motivation, this revamp completely removed Mad from the Comics Code Authority's censorious overview, thereby assuring its survival.

During the 1950s, Kurtzman was also one of the writers for the relaunched Flash Gordon daily strip. Amusingly, the strip was one of Kurtzman's many Mad targets, with 1954's parody "Flesh Garden!", illustrated by Wally Wood.

Departure from Mad

By 1957, with Mad sales increasing, and all of EC's other titles having been 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 gets the hero's role of David while Gaines plays the vulgarian Goliath) has long been a compelling characterization for some. But it's likely that no 1950s publisher other than Bill Gaines would ever have printed Mad in the first place. When Kurtzman and Feldstein were producing humor comics at the same time (Feldstein edited EC's lesser sister publication Panic), it's 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 zeitgeist or edited another important or successful magazine. Kurtzman's supporters say luck was against him, and there is evidence for this. But it's also true that nothing Kurtzman produced after his original Mad run approached it for bite or observational wit; the 25+ years of Little Annie Fanny were especially tepid and banal. In the end, and for all his substantial achievements, Kurtzman's career was forever colored by a sense of "what might have been."

Kurtzman was also the editor of Trump, published by Hugh Hefner in 1957, which presented Kurtzman's Mad sensibilities in a glossy, upscale magazine format. He later led an artists collective of himself, Will Elder, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth in publishing Humbug, which failed to overcome distribution and financial problems.

Kurtzman's last regular editorial position was at the helm of Warren Publishing's Help! from 1962 to 1966. Though 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. 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, and Gahan Wilson along with the above names, the magazine folded after 26 issues.

In his later years, Kurtzman continued to work on projects and anthologies, as well as teaching a cartooning class at New York's School of Visual Arts. Beginning in 1988, the Harvey Awards were first given to the year's outstanding comics and creators.

In the end, Kurtzman's critical reputation has outlasted his career valleys and the formulaic or disappointing projects. He is routinely celebrated for his visual verve and artistic successes, and is cited as an influence by many important cartoonists. In its much-critiqued 2000 list of the century's Top 100 comics, the Comics Journal awarded Kurtzman 5 of the slots:

• 8. Mad by Harvey Kurtzman & various
• 12. EC's "New Trend" war comics by Harvey Kurtzman & various
• 26. The Jungle Book by Harvey Kurtzman
• 63. Hey Look! by Harvey Kurtzman
• 64. Goodman Beaver by Harvey Kurtzman & Bill Elder

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