Few comic-book creators have affected their medium as strongly as Harvey Kurtzman. As artist, writer and editor, Kurtzman worked equally well in humorous and serious genres. In his gripping war stories, he set new standards for cinematic pacing, realism and ironic drama. With his notorious pop-culture satires for Mad, in both its comic book and magazine forms, Kurtzman influenced the underground comics movement of the 1960s.

A cartoonist and comics enthusiast from early childhood, Kurtzman created his first comic strip, Ikey and Mikey, with chalk on Brooklyn pavements. Kurtzman attended New York's High School of Music and Art, where he met his lifelong friend and frequent future collaborator, Will Elder.

His first published comics work (a single panel) appeared in Tip Top Comics in 1939. By 1943, Kurtzman had become a professional comic book artist. He illustrated several undistinguished superhero features for Louis Ferstadt, whose own comics work appeared in The Daily Worker newspaper and in DC's Flash Comics. These early features, including Lash Lightning, Magno & Davey, Mr. Risk, Paul Revere Jr., Buckskin and Unknown Soldier, appeared in the Ace Magazines title Four Favorites. In the same year, Kurtzman drew the humor features Bill, The Magnificent and Flatfoot Burns for Quality Comics' Hit Comics and Police Comics titles.

Drafted in 1945, Kurtzman contributed cartoons to Yank, the Army Weekly, also drawing the superhero feature, Black Venus, for Aviation Press.

In 1946, Kurtzman's first significant work appeared in various Timely Comics titles. His one-page gag strip, Hey Look!, spanned three years and approximately 150 episodes. In this strip, Kurtzman's bold graphic style, distinctive comic dialogue and energetic, absurd humor rapidly developed. Kurtzman's other Timely work, done to order for editor Stan Lee, was undistinguished (especially Rusty, a blatant imitation of Chic Young's popular newspaper comic strip Blondie). Hey Look! Became a cult favorite, and proved successful enough for Kurtzman to emulate it in the short-lived newspaper comic strip Silver Linings, done for the New York Herald Tribune.

During this period, Kurtzman, Elder and Charles Stern attempted to form a commercial art studio. Among the cartoonists that used the Charles William Harvey Studio were John Severin, David Berg, Jules Feiffer, and Asterix and Obelix co-creator Rene Goscinny.

In 1949, Kurtzman returned to serious comics work. With Severin, Kurtzman collaborated on three Western stories for Prize Publications' anthology Prize Comics Western. Another Western-themed story gave Kurtzman his entrance into the ranks William Gaines'Entertaining Comics (EC) company. "Lucky Fights It Through," a 16-page giveaway educational comic book dealing with VD, was Kurtzman's first work for EC. From 1950 to 1952, Kurtzman wrote and drew 32 horror, fantasy, adventure, war and science-fiction stories for the "New Trend" EC titles Tales From The Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror, Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy.

In 1950, Kurtzman also wrote and drew the Western spoof series, Pot-Shot Pete, for the DC and Toby Press titles All-American Western, Jimmy Wakely, John Wayne Adventure Comics and Billy The Kid. This series strongly anticipates Kurtzman's genre parodies in the early issues of Mad. His artwork for the series ranks among his best pure cartooning, bristling with energy and bold graphic design.

In his earliest stories for EC, Kurtzman broke from the house style of editors Gaines and Al Feldstein, substituting the lively hand lettering of Ben Oda for the staid LeRoy mechanical text that was the company's norm. As well, his last few science fiction stories were blatantly satirical and farcical, with Kurtzman's art becoming increasingly exaggerated and stylized.

Kurtzman's EC cartooning from 1949 to '52 is a commanding body of work. His first pieces, from "Lucky" to the earliest horror, adventure and SF stories, reveal him as a stylistic disciple of Milton Caniff and Will Eisner. Caniff's influence is clearly felt in Kurtzman's human figures and his use of chiaroscuro effects. Eisner is echoed in Kurtzman's dynamic viewpoints, panel designs and page layouts. Particularly striking are Kurtzman's splash pages for his EC genre stories. The opening page to "Atom Bomb Thief!" (Weird Fantasy #2, 1950) has the verve of a contemporary movie poster. Kurtzman uses the striking design of the story's opening page to introduce the main characters and set the narrative in motion.

As the 1950 stories continue, Kurtzman's line becomes bolder, and the textures of his artwork richer. Though Kurtzman was a perfectionist, working and reworking the minutest details to his satisfaction, his comic art appears bold and effortless. His line bristles with life and his human figures are impressively kinetic and vivid. His story, "Henry And His Goon-Child!," from Weird Fantasy #3 (1950), is a masterwork of controlled chiaroscuro and subtle lighting effects.

By 1951, Kurtzman's artwork, especially for the war stories of Two-Fisted Tales, approached graphic abstraction. "Rubble!", from Two-Fisted Tales #24 (1951) was a quantum leap from the atmospheric expressionism of "Henry and His Goon-Child!". Figures are severely stylized, and linear detail is kept to a minimum. Bold swatches of black and white streak across his pages, conveying the atmosphere of his bleak landscapes with striking grace and zest. "Air Burst!" (Frontline Combat #4), "The Big If!" (Frontline Combat #5) and "Corpse on the Imjin!" (Two-Fisted Tales #25) are other superb examples of Kurtzman's superbly stylized approach to cinematic realism in his war comics.

Kurtzman became an editor and writer for EC in 1950. His first effort was an adventure anthology, Two-Fisted Tales. Within its first year, Kurtzman had refocused the title as a war comic, dealing with the personal and psychological impact of warfare. Kurtzman's obsessive research gave these war stories, which ranged from ancient times to the then current Korean War, a true documentary quality.

For Two-Fisted Tales, Kurtzman cultivated a stable of regular artists, among them John Severin (often in collaboration with Will Elder), Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Reed Crandall and George Evans. These artists, working from Kurtzman's detailed notes and thumbnail page layouts, were inspired to do some of their greatest work in this and Kurtzman's second war title, Frontline Combat, which debuted in 1951. Kurtzman also used artists unique to his EC-edited titles, including Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Ric Estrada, Gene Colan and Alex Toth.

As with his artwork for EC, Kurtzman's writing and editing displayed an obsession for perfection. Not every comics artist could work under the Kurtzman method. Such maverick stylists as Kubert and Toth simply did not see things Kurtzman's way. Less innovative artists such as Severin, Evans and Crandall seemingly thrived on the controlled layouts and pacing that were Kurtzman's forte.

By 1951's end, Kurtzman's editorial workload brought an end to his comics illustration work, save for his dynamic cover drawings. The endless hours of research for the war stories would lead to Kurtzman's hospitalization for jaundice and general fatigue in 1952.

Frustrated by the high sales of EC's horror titles, Kurtzman convinced publisher Gaines to let him try a humor title. Launched in 1952, Mad was, at first, an uncertain hodge-podge of shaggy dog stories and vague jabs at the genre cliches of EC's horror and SF stories. As with Two-Fisted Tales, Kurtzman took about a year to find his voice for Mad. A series of popular culture parodies, including several lampoons of comic book superheroes such as Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and Plastic Man, gave Mad its unique identity. It became one of EC's most popular titles by 1953.

Kurtzman's Mad artists, particularly Wally Wood and Will Elder, began to cram their stories with a surfeit of background detail. Some of it complemented the stories, but most of it was simply inspired lunacy. Though this can be seen as rebellion on the artists' behalf against Kurtzman's highly controlled editorial style, the background ephemera soon became a favorite of Mad readers. Stories such as Wood's "Superduperman!" (Mad #4) and Elder's "Dragged Net!" (Mad #11) are fine examples of this off-the-cuff overload.

In 1952, Kurtzman briefly wrote and laid out the daily Flash Gordon newspaper strip for King Features Syndicate. Frank Frazetta , among others, provided the finished artwork.

As Mad continued, Kurtzman's satirical vision broadened, his targets including movie and TV parodies, advertising, censorship, and political satire. Kurtzman's masterpiece for Mad was "Book! Movie!" (issue #13). This story is a sublime, and still relevant, satire on the sanitized movie versions of violent, sexually suggestive popular fiction. "Newspapers!" (Mad #16) savages the lurid tendencies of newspaper reporting and advertising. Kurtzman's voice for social satire expanded to include atmospheric comics essays on restaurants and supermarkets.

These attacks and commentaries on American pop culture had a profound influence on the first generation of underground comics creators, including Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Jay Lynch, Gilbert Shelton, Frank Stack and S. Clay Wilson.

EC's comic books were threatened by negative press, including many citations in Fredric Wertham's notorious anti-comics polemic, Seduction of the Innocent. They were also singled out in the Kefauver Committee's federal court witch-hunts. Gaines' nervous testimony before the Kefauver Committee helped to seal the fate of EC and other comics publishers. The establishment of the Comics Code Authority in 1954 brought an end to EC's horror and crime comics. Mad's vicious satires also invoked the wrath of censors. The comic book Mad was cancelled with its 23rd issue. Kurtzman revamped the title as a 48-page black and white magazine, combining comics and magazine techniques in an innovative format. As EC's "New Direction" and "Picto-Fiction" titles floundered, Mad became increasingly popular.

Kurtzman edited only five magazine issues of Mad. Disagreements with Gaines led to Kurtzman abandoning Mad in 1955. In Al Feldstein's hands, the Kurtzman-created Mad became the only EC publication to survive the 1950s. Its popularity has continued to the present. Ironically, while Kurtzman's comic book issues of Mad have been extensively reprinted, his magazine Mad remains literally untouched.

Kurtzman was done with Mad, not through with satire magazines. In 1956, Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, an admirer of comics and cartooning, partnered with Kurtzman for Trump. This lavish full-color satire magazine featured inspired work by Wood, Davis, Elder, Heath and Al Jaffee, who had joined the staff of Mad with its second magazine issue. Lushly printed and gorgeously produced, Trump was a major market failure, and was cancelled with its second issue. It remains the most elaborate satire magazine published in the US.

On the rebound, Kurtzman downsized with the self-published Humbug, a newsprint satire monthly that was smaller than standard comic book size. Printed in black and white with one additional color, Humbug sustained Kurtzman's knack for capturing the '50s zeitgeist, and contained fine work by Jaffee (as both writer and artist), Davis, Elder, Heath and magazine cartoonist B. Blechman. Writer/cartoonist Arnold Roth, though primarily an editor, also contributed pieces to Humbug.

Humbug's quaint size doomed it to failure on the newsstands, where it was, quite literally, lost in the shuffle. A late conversion to Mad-magazine size failed to spark interest, and Humbug died with its 11th issue in 1958. In retrospect, Humbug was perhaps the most personal and intellectual of all Kurtzman's satire efforts. Robert Crumb cited the magazine as a profound influence on his worldview in a 1988 interview.

In 1959, Kurtzman returned to comics for what would prove his last sustained effort as writer and artist. Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book was the first original "graphic novel" produced for the paperback book market. Published by Ballantine Books, whose paperback Mad reprints were healthy sellers, Kurtzman's Jungle Book contained four satirical stories. These lampooned TV violence, Tennessee Williams-style "Southern Degenerate" dramas, the foibles of the publishing biz, and, harkening back to Pot Shot Pete, the venerable Western. Kurtzman's vigorous, highly kinetic artwork, decorated with delicate black and white wash tones, makes the uneven Jungle Book perhaps the best legacy of his work as a cartoonist.

1959 and 1960 saw Kurtzman working steadily as a freelance writer and artist for Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, Madison Avenue, TV Guide, Pageant and Playboy magazines. A collaboration with Elliot Caplin produced episodes of an unsold newspaper strip, "Kermit the Hermit." 1960 saw Kurtzman employed by Jim Warren, whose Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine spawned a publishing empire of horror-related titles. Kurtzman edited a Warren magazine on movie Westerns, then convinced Warren to bankroll yet another satire magazine. Help! would prove the longest-lived of Kurtzman's satire efforts, and introduced a number of young "underground" cartoonists to mainstream America. Besides introducing the works of future Monty Python members Terry Gilliam and John Cleese, Help! also gave Robert Crumb, Jay Lynch and Gilbert Shelton their first major publication.

Kurtzman's greatest work for Help! was the comic strip Goodman Beaver, an inspired collaboration with his Mad-mate Will Elder. These mordant fables pitted the Candide-like Goodman against the cruelties and hypocrisies of modern life. Two standout stories include the brilliant "Goodman Meets S*perman," a superb example of Kurtzman's ironic, questioning wit, and the notorious "Goodman Goes Playboy." The latter story, which used characters from the popular Archie line of comics, invoked the wrath of Archie publisher John Goldwater. Kurtzman had first irked Goldwater with the vicious satire "Starchie!" (Mad #12), perhaps the grimmest parody in that magazine's history. "Goodman Goes Playboy!" was extensively doctored for a mid-'60s paperback reprint, and was not allowed for publication in a 1984 Kitchen Sink compilation of the "Goodman" strips. It remains a lost Kurtzman masterpiece, along with the early magazine issues of Mad.

Ironically, Kurtzman became a regular Playboy contributor in 1962 with the publication of the first episode of Little Annie Fanny. This lavish, painted full color comic strip reprised the themes of "Goodman Beaver," with the innocent title character forever finding herself in topical pop-culture situations, pursued by an endless stream of lecherous males. Though its satire was toned-down from the overkill of the early Mad spoofs, Little Annie Fanny is significant as the first comic strip created specifically for a sophisticated adult readership in the United States. It provided a healthy outlet for Kurtzman's increasing bewilderment and cynicism at life in America. Will Elder was the principal artist for the series' 26 year run, although Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Russ Heath, Frank Frazetta and many other artists worked on the strip.

Help! ended a healthy run in 1965, by which time Kurtzman's Annie Fanny work remained his prime creative outlet. Kurtzman produced a new Hey Look! page for a 1966 fanzine published by John Benson. He also edited a handful of humor-themed paperback novelties and co-scripted the feature length stop-motion animated film, Mad Monster Party, which was released in 1967.

In 1969 and 1970, Kurtzman collaborated with several of the underground cartoonists whom his Mad work had inspired. As well, he contributed to Esquire, Time and Playboy. In 1972, Kurtzman appeared in a TV commercial for Scripto pens. '72 also saw him writing, designing and producing several short animated films for the long-running PBS series Sesame Street.

Little Annie Fanny, ever topical and satirical, continued to lampoon the changing morality and fads of the 1970s, and remained Kurtzman's principal work. He continued to contribute to underground comics, including work for Bijou Funnies and Snarf. He also contributed to the New York Times and various fanzine and comics convention publications, including the program guide for the legendary 1972 EC comics convention in New York. A selection of Hey Look! and Pot Shot Pete strips were published by Kitchen Sink as Kurtzman Komix in 1976. In '77, Kurtzman was given an Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comics Con.

Kurtzman returned to novelty paperback humor with 1980's Nuts, a sort of Mad for young children, which lasted for two issues. 1980 also saw the publication of Kurtzman's complete Two-Fisted Tales in a lavish hardcover, black and white boxed set issued by Russ Cochran. A complete Frontline Combat set followed in 1982, with all of Kurtzman's horror and SF work also reprinted in hardcover. A definite interview with Kurtzman appeared in the October, 1981 issue of The Comics Journal magazine.

Kurtzman returned to Mad in 1985, producing a handful of stories in collaboration with Will Elder and Sarah Downs. 1986 saw Kurtzman's run of the comic book Mad published in hardcover by Cochran. Kitchen Sink reissued Jungle Book in the same year.

Kurtzman's final Little Annie Fanny story appeared in the September, 1988 issue of Playboy. In that same year, My Life As A Cartoonist, an autobiography slanted for a young adult market, was published by Pocket Books. Betsy's Buddies, a collaboration with Sarah Downs, was published that same year by Kitchen Sink Press.

Kurtzman's final major works appeared in the early 1990s. Harvey Kurtzman's Strange Adventures, a lavish hardbound satire anthology, revived the original spoof format of Mad for this 1990 one-shot, published by Marvel Comics. The next year saw the publication of Kurtzman's long-awaited visual history of comics, From Aargh! to Zap! This flawed but sincere tribute to comics history provided a poignant coda to a long and influential career in cartooning. In 1992, Kurtzman revived Two-Fisted Tales, writing and laying out a new series of historical war stories for the Byron Preiss-published effort, which contained artwork by William Stout, John Garcia, Wayne Vansant and Don Lomax. Bearing the EC comics logo, Harvey Kurtzman's New Two-Fisted Tales was distributed by Dark Horse Comics. This ambitious project was not a market success. 1992 saw the collected Hey Look! strips published by Kitchen Sink Press.

Kurtzman's failing health, which had greatly limited his output in the 1990s, gradually worsened in 1992. A Kurtzman-themed tribute issue of The Comics Journal, initiated and edited without credit by this writer, appeared a few short months before Kurtzman's death in February, 1993.

Harvey Kurtzman's work profoundly impacted 20th century American culture. His large legacy of serious and satirical work set standards for quality and intelligence that remain unequalled. His satires and parodies for Mad and his other satire magazines redefined the role of parody in American culture, and his influence on the first generation of underground cartoonists is undeniable. Though Kurtzman's major work was created in the 1950s and early 1960s, it continues to impact and influence comics creators today. -Frank Young

MAJOR WORK:

"Lucky Fights It Through," educational giveaway comic, EC comics

"Pot Shot Pete," various DC and Toby Press titles, 1950

various science fiction and horror stories, Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, EC Comics, 1950-51

Two-Fisted Tales (writer, editor, artist, layout), EC Comics, 1950-55

Frontline Combat(writer, editor, artist, layout), EC Comics, 1951-54

Mad (writer, editor, artist, layout), EC Comics, 1952-56

Trump (writer, editor, layout), HMH Publ. Co., 1957

Humbug (writer, editor, artist, layout), Humbug Publishing, 1957-58

Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book (stories and art), Ballantine Books, 1959

Help! (writer, editor, artist, layout), Warren Publications, 1960-65

"Goodman Beaver" (writer, layout), comic strip published in Help! magazine, 1961-63 (partially collected in 1984 Kitchen Sink Press book)

"Little Annie Fanny" (co-creator, writer, layout), published in Playboy magazine, 1962-88

Mad Monster Party (co-script for animated feature film) Avco-Embassy Films, 1967

Various underground comics "jam" pages and cover art, 1969-72, various publishers incl. Kitchen Sink Press, Gothic Blimp Works, Print Mint

Short animated films written and designed for PBS series "Sesame Street," 1972

Kurtzman Komix, 1976 (Kitchen Sink Press)

Nuts, 1980 (paperback humor anthology, Pocket Books)

My Life As A Cartoonist (writer), Pocket Books, 1988

Betsy's Buddies (with Sarah Downs) Kitchen Sink Press, 1988

Harvey Kurtzman's Strange Adventures (writer, layout, artist), 1990, Marvel Comics

From Aargh! to Zap!: Harvey Kurtzman's Visual History Of The Comics, (writer) 1991, Byron Preiss Visual Communications

Harvey Kurtzman's New Two-Fisted Tales (artist, editor, writer, layout), 1991-92, EC/Byron Preiss Visual Communications

Links:

100k sketch by Kurtzman for Little Annie Fanny

Kurtzman's work for EC has been extensively reprinted by Russ Cochran. Though the hardbound EC Library sets are out of print, Cochran has issued several full-color reprints, including complete comic-book reissues of all major EC titles from 1950 to '56. They can be purchased at:

http://www.gemstonepub.com/eccomics/