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The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics

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Want to look through the Art of Harvey Kurtzman book before you run out and buy it? I just made a video browsing through the whole thing! Take a look at all the rare art and wonderful cartoony delights in the video below...This book has enough history, art and context to introduce new fans and reward long-time readers of the greatest cartoonist of the late twentieth century.The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics

Harvey Kurtzman, like his contemporary Wally Wood, is not as well known today, but was one of the most influential cartoonists of the mid Twentieth Century. His style helped define EC Comics, MAD Magazine and Little Annie Fannie. He helped new cartoonists get their starts, from Drew Friedman to Art Speigelman to Robert Crumb. Like Wood, his biggest fans were his fellow cartoonists.
Paul Buhle and Dennis Kitchen have done a masterful job in finally telling the story of this unsung creative genius, in words and images. This book is a MUST for anyone who is serious about becoming a cartoonist or collecting cartoons.

Well worth the wait! At last a super looking book about the comics funny man. There are several books about Mad and a recently published Humbug reprint (a Trump one is touch-and-go) help to reveal how great Kurtzman was and this book is a handsome biography not only in words but with two hundred well chosen illustrations.

His story, by Kitchen and Buhle, is helped because they represent the Kurtzman estate and clearly had access to a lot of original artwork which I doubt has been seen before. You'll see art from Two-fisted Tales, Frontline Combat, Mad, Trump, Humbug, Help! and Little Annie Fanny all with decent captions, too.

The book's production is really first-class and a nice touch is the addition of four pages printed on tracing paper that overlay a page of Little Annie Fanny, the long captions explain just how much work went into each page of the Playboy feature.

Since his death in 1993 Kurtzman's stature has grown and rightly so but I thought it unfortunate that he never quite achieved the perfection he was always striving for with his publications. I bet he would have appreciated the love and care that has gone into this book tribute.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

Kurtzman was without a doubt a cartooning genius. I loved a lot of his work before I ever realized who he was. This book looks at his work from EC to Mad (where he guided the publication to a magazine format, where it really took off) to his own magazines which, in many ways were ahead of their times, to the work he did for Playboy Magazine. Kurtzman's style and humor combined to create a solid collection of work which has influenced many artists.

The author has collected a great deal of Kurtzman's work, both never-before-seen material and material which illustrated some of his best work. In addition, the book contains sketches and layouts which shows how Kurtzman worked out the design of his work (and how he developed ideas for others). Overall, the book will make you better appreciate a man who did a lot to shape humor in the 20th Century, although few people know it.

One unfortunate aspect of this book, and one which prevented it from getting 5 stars, was the obligatory paragraph well within the work which railed against the War in Iraq. What the heck does the life of a cartoonist who served during WWII, who pushed the boundaries of humor in the 1950s, who edited several innovative magazines and who died in the 1990s have to do with the Iraq War? Is it necessary for writers to slip in some criticism of the Global War on Terror in order to validate their liberal credentials? Will there soon be cookbooks which rail against Cheney when discussing how long to cook pheasant? Will we see guidebooks to walking tours of the Appalachians which will talk about how they resemble the mountains of Afghanistan "before the illegal occupation?" This is a huge turn-off and I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks so.

A superb and lavish book on the master.
I am in awe of Harvey as usual.
From Sergio Arogones to modern humor..we can see his influence.
One of my favorite books.

Having first devoured Greg Sadowski's Comics Journal Library tribute to MAD Magazine creator Harvey Kurtzman a couple years ago, I was surprised and not a little excited to learn that Denis Kitchen was putting out his own Harvey Kurtzman art book, said to be the definitive work.

Is it? Well, it's certainly impressive. The Art of Harvey Kurtzman, the Mad Genius of Comics, boasts original artwork from the Master's archives, plus a great deal of rare, unpublished material, all of it spanning his entire career, thus bringing you closer than ever before to Harvey Kurtzman's creative process.

That's exciting in and of itself, and there's abundant reminder here of just how effective and amusing Harvey was when relying on his own drawing for a project (He tended for a good chunk of his career to just do layouts for other artists to follow); he had a very expressive, elongated style, deceptively simple and always captivating.

The one downside is that, unlike Greg Sadowski's book on Kurtzman, there is very little commentary from the man himself, but, hey, this is quite specifically an art book, after all.

We do get a useful reminder of what a benevolent boss Harvey was, helping give young Robert Crumb and Woody Allen some valuable space in the page of his HELP! Magazine, or giving his blessing to young Terry Gilliam when the artist wanted to do a photo shoot with the uniquely photogenic John Cleese (thus creating, quite by accident, the epicentre of what would become Monty Python!).

And besides, anything that includes a special section showing the painstaking layer-technique Kurtzman and colleague Will Elder used when creating Playboy's Little Annie Fanny is pretty spectacular.

Speaking of the spectacular, but chronically misunderstood, Miss Fanny, I was annoyed at that section of Harry Shearer's introduction to this book that implied that Kurtzman's tenure on "Fannie" (sic) was an embarrassment borne out of desperation.

Nonsense. As cartoon art, Annie Fanny was one of Kurtzman and Elder's finest achievements, indeed they often used an Annie Fanny sample to help get them advertising work. Like it or not, the so-called controversial pages of Playboy in fact kept them in the mainstream, just as it did Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Ian Fleming, Raymond Benson... What were they, hacks?? Of course not.

There's also a previously untold story; the role Adele Kurtzman played in her husband Harvey's career...but I won't spoil it by revealing that here; it's just too good a story, sorry!

So, although I personally would've liked more biographical detail, giving The Art of Harvey Kurtzman less than 5 stars would undermine the hard work Kitchen and co-author Paul Buhle have put into it. That wouldn't be fair, as this is as immaculate a comic art book as you could wish. Really fascinating and lovely. (Even the cover is priceless - capturing beautifully Harvey's self-effacing wackiness!) I wouldn't say this is for the casual fan or even for those looking for more of a biography, so let us keep the five stars because I do love it and it is, without a doubt, excellent, so, let us say this is for completists.

Harvey Kurtzman was one of the greatest comic book creators of the 20th Century. His first big success was creating war comics and Mad for EC Comics. Kurtzman quit Mad Magazine just when it was starting to take off, and his career never recovered. He still produced some excellent work, but he never made as much money as he deserved to make. This book tells his life story and prints tons of his excellent artwork. A great overview of the career of one of the great cartoonists.

As a professional cartoonist, I have to give credit where credit is due: Harvey Kurtzman's genius pointed the way for me when I was a kid fifty years ago. Both Kurtzman and Will Elder virtually invented the modern satiric form, which is a loving fact made clear across every page of this wonderful book. The quality of the reproductions in this book stand as a testimony to the author and publisher's commitment to giving a great artist his due. Buy the book.

If you have never heard of Harvey Kurtzman, you have seen his work; for instance, his cover logo for _MAD Magazine_ is one of the most easily recognized of trademarks. Kurtzman was in with _MAD_ from the beginning, and it is perhaps what he is most famous for, but he did plenty else, and it isn't exaggeration to say that if Kurtzman hadn't put out such prodigious and respected (and funny) work, we might not have had R. Crumb or Art Spiegelman, or Monty Python, or the Simpsons. So he is worth knowing about, and even more, his cartoons are worth looking at, and so it is wonderful to have a big new book of biography accompanied by his drawings, _The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics_ (Abrams Comicarts) by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle. _MAD_ may not even be Kurtzman's best work, or even his most-seen, so it is a delight to see what came before and after. Kurtzman was a serious comic satirist, and the authors have done much to show him in that light. "In _MAD_ and all his subsequent ventures," they write, "Kurtzman drew a bead on the phony aspects and idiosyncrasies of modern commercial culture - from advertising to film to comic book clichés." He skewered Joe McCarthy and those who would censor comics, among many others, so his issues were serious, but his weapon was laughter.

Kurtzman grew up in the Bronx, and he was a bright kid at school, with obvious artistic capability. He went to the High School of Music and Art, and he did all the drawing and painting in the curriculum, but he fell in love with _Terry and the Pirates_, _Dick Tracy_, _Flash Gordon_, and _Li'l Abner_. He was drafted for World War II, and he was able to do some illustration for Army manuals, and would go on to do his first fine work with war stories, like _Frontline Combat_ and _Two Fisted Tales_. Reproduced here is his six-page story "Corpse on the Imjin!" in which a solitary G.I. watches a corpse float downriver, and then proceeds to make another, in panels that are vivid and disturbing. Kurtzman began to concentrate on humor, and in 1952 the comic book _MAD_ was begun. Reproduced here are Kurtzman's classic, playful, ironic covers which were sometimes funny one-frame cartoons, but also parodied other publications, like a composition book, a racing tout sheet, or even _The New England Journal of Medicine_. Kurtzman wanted to be in charge of a slick magazine, rather than the mere comic book that _MAD_ was for its first 23 issues, and in 1955 _MAD_ indeed became a magazine. Kurtzman, however, wasn't with _MAD_ long, a mere three years; he was there for only five of the magazine issues. He wanted more control over the magazine he had created, and off he went. He never had much business sense, and he was walking away from a good thing. He tried founding other magazines, of which _Humbug_ (which had only eleven issues) was most like _MAD_ and used the talents of artists who used to work there, but was meant to have humor appealing more to adults. Another project, _Help!_ lasted for 26 issues, and brought together some big names. Gloria Steinem served as editorial assistant, and Woody Allen, Sid Caesar, and Dick Van Dyke took part. R. Crumb worked there, and an unknown Englishman named John Cleese was the actor in a story made by series of photos like comic panels. He there met Kurtzman's assistant, Terry Gilliam, and the rest is history. Immediately after Kurtzman left _MAD_, Hugh Hefner helped him get a humor magazine called _Trump_ started, but _Playboy_ was having its own financial problems, and _Trump_ lasted two issues. Hefner remained interested in Kurtzman's work, and for over a quarter of a century, Kurtzman's "Little Annie Fanny" (beautifully drawn and colored by his pal Will Elder) was a staple of _Playboy_'s back pages. It was a mixed blessing; it certainly got him a huge audience, and the strip was handsomely printed on slick paper, and it did make him plenty of money. Annie, however, is a real product of her time, and of her _Playboy_ environment, and Kurtzman often had to do what Hefner directed, like have Annie naked by the end of every issue. The satire was not so sharp, though often the jokes were very good. Included in this volume are vellum sheets that show how insanely labor intensive it was to make just one page of an Annie adventure.

The regard for Kurtzman held by comic authors and fans is reflected in the annual awards given for the past twenty years for excellence in comics: they are The Harvey Awards. Kurtzman is beloved by the artists in part because he was generous in nurturing talent, giving the first national exposure to Robert Crumb (who says Kurtzman was as good a cartoonist as any in history) as well as other comix stars. When he died in 1993, there had already been tributes, and they keep coming, with Kurtzman originals on display in many museums. _The Art of Harvey Kurtzman_ is a worthy part of the ongoing waves of appreciation.

The Art of Harvey Kurtzman is a large-format well-illustrated overview of Harvey Kurtzman's work. The book is divided into 5 chronological chapters based on major periods in his life. Each chapter is illustrated with rough sketches from Kurtzman's personal archives and other half-finished pieces or sections, as well as at least one finished work from the period.

Chapter 1 is entitled "Hey Look! It's the '40s" and is an outline of his earliest work in cartooning. Included are six of the 150 "Hey Look!" one-page comics he did for Stan Lee's Marvel.

Chapter 2 reviews his work with Bill Gaines' E.C. Comics, mostly doing war comics. There is a 7 page section where his story "Corpse on the Imjin" (from Two-Fisted Tales #25, January 1952) is reproduced in black & white drawings.

Chapter 3 is the heart of the book and devoted to his pioneering work with MAD magazine. Over 30 MAD covers are reproduced as well as the complete "SUPERDUPERMAN!" comic (from MAD #4, April 1953).

Kurtzman left MAD after disagreements with Gaines; and Chapter 4 covers the period in Kurtzman's life when he put out three other magazines: Trump, Humbug and Help! Two Trump covers, 14 Humbug covers, and 15 Help! covers are included as well as a complete 11 page cartoon called "The Grasshopper and the Ant" (from Esquire, May 1960) featuring a beatnik grasshopper and a workaholic ant.

Chapter 5 is mostly about Kurtzman's 25 years producing "Little Annie Fanny" comics for Playboy. A three page "Little Annie Fanny" origin story, which traces her life from a childhood in Al Capp's Dogpatch, through her growing up in "Peanuts" and "Little Orphan Annie," and ending with one-panel affairs with "Dick Tracy," "Beetle Bailey," and "Mandrake the Magician," appears here for the first time. Also reproduced is the Little Annie Fanny "Americans in Paris" (from Playboy, August 1967) and two cartoons on Dracula and Women that he did for French alternative comics.

This book, with its cartoonist-at-work sketches, roughs and thumbnails, will appeal especially to readers interested in Kurtzman's creative process. It may not be the best introduction to Kurtzman, but its finished pieces will provide enough for someone new to Kurtzman to grasp the importance of the man to the 20th century comics industry.