Hey Look! The Harvey Kurtzman Archives!

October 23, 2008 9:34 AM

"Almost all American satire today follows a formula that Harvey Kurtzman thought up." - Richard Corliss [Via Tom Spurgeon's TCR]
posted by Alvy Ampersand (10 comments total)

And, as an added and NSFW bonus, here's a handful(Haw!) of lushly illustrated Little Annie Fannie strips(Hyuck!) by Kurtzman and Will Elder.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:35 AM on October 23, 2008

Kurtzman was quite a remarkable cartoonist. He's incredibly intimidating for the cartoonist wannabe in me, because his skill level was higher than I can even dream of achieving. Actually, most of those first wave of Mad artists had the effect on me.

When I was a youngster stealing my older brother's Playboys, it was cartoons like Little Annie Fannie that fascinated me more than the girlie pictures. Also - that Time piece is great! It filled in a lot of gaps in his career for me. Thanks!
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 10:08 AM on October 23, 2008

Great link. I've had the pleasure to work on the book design for this solid Kurtzman overview that Abrams is publishing soon. I've always loved looking at Kurtzman's work, but through this job I've finally gotten around to reading an awful lot of it. Such great work, and so much of it. I highly suggest fans hunt down copies of the Comics Journal's special Harvey Kurtzman volume.

Sorry to get all commercially tied in there.
posted by JBennett at 10:10 AM on October 23, 2008

Great article. Of course that "formula" mean he can be blamed for all Scary Movie sequels and knock-offs.
posted by Artw at 10:14 AM on October 23, 2008

There was a really fascinating and well written article in the Comics Journal 7 or 8 years ago about Kurtzman's late-60's-and-beyond work and his refusal to adapt to post-'65 pop/counter-culture with a fascinating digression on "Brother" Dave Gardner, tying into the general idea of people who got left behind by, or who refused to follow cultural shifts.

S'not online though. Oh well.
posted by anazgnos at 10:17 AM on October 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

One of Robert Crumb's first jobs was for Help! (where he met Terry Gilliam) and he idolized Kurtzman all his life. He says that Harvey hated having his Little Annie Fanny roughs blue-penciled by Hefner and was literally driven to tears talking about it.

Great post!
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:28 AM on October 23, 2008

Kurtzman was one of the great American humorists, and he's never gotten his due from the culture at large. Thanks for the post.
posted by languagehat at 1:21 PM on October 23, 2008

It's strange to think that, as a kid reading "Mad", I saw most of the great movies of the time first as Kurtzman satires. "Midnight Cowboy", "Taxi Driver", "The Graduate", "Mean Streets"....
posted by acrasis at 4:47 PM on October 23, 2008 [3 favorites]

as a kid reading "Mad", I saw most of the great movies of the time first as Kurtzman satires.

Are we related?

"Midnight Cowboy", "Taxi Driver", "The Graduate", "Mean Streets"

Well not these movies, at least not directly. Kurtzman left Mad in 1956. But yeah.
posted by Herodios at 8:59 PM on October 23, 2008

Acrasis, I've got the same thing going on. I never really understood the Godfather until I grew up, since all I knew of it was the MAD satire.
posted by notsnot at 6:25 AM on October 24, 2008