Grasshopper and the Ant by Harvey Kurtzman [Hardcover]

Harvey Kurtzman (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2002

Kurtzman ---the creator of MAD--- delivers a bittersweet "beatnik" version of the venerable Æsop fable in exquisite full color. Created without collaborators in 1960, at the peak of his powers, this is the 1st book printing of the lost Kurtzman classic. Selected as "One of the Best 100 Graphic Novels" in Steve Weiner’s book of the same name, and nominated for a Harvey Award. 10" square hardcover with dust jacket. Shrink-wrapped. Introduction by Denis Kitchen.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kurtzman ...composed comix with Duke Ellington's grace, Dizzy Gillespie's wit and Charlie Parker's originality." -- Art Spiegelman (1999)

"Kurtzman ...composed comix with Duke Ellington's grace, Dizzy Gillespie's wit and Charlie Parker's originality." --Art Spiegelman (1999)

"[Among] Ten Graphic Novels... Looks like a childÂ’s fable but its sarcasm and politics are anything but childish." -- St. Petersburg Times, October 4, 2005

"Kurtzman ...composed comix with Duke Ellington's grace, Dizzy Gillespie's wit and Charlie Parker's originality." -- Art Spiegelman (1999)

"Kurtzman ...composed comix with Duke Ellington's grace, Dizzy Gillespie's wit and Charlie Parker's originality." --Art Spiegelman (1999)

"[Among] Ten Graphic Novels... Looks like a child’s fable but its sarcasm and politics are anything but childish." -- St. Petersburg Times, October 4, 2005

"[Among] Ten Graphic Novels... Looks like a child’s fable but its sarcasm and politics are anything but childish." --St. Petersburg Times, October 4, 2005

"Kurtzman ...composed comix with Duke Ellington's grace, Dizzy Gillespie's wit and Charlie Parker's originality." --Art Spiegelman (1999)

About the Author

Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993) was a cartoonist, writer and editor with enormous influence on several generations of cartoonists and readers. He broke into the comic book field working on second and third-rate superhero comics in the early '40s. After military service, Kurtzman returned to the field with a distinctive new style, creating humorous one-shot fillers called "Hey Look!" for Stan Lee at Timely (Marvel) Comics and Elliot Caplin at Toby Comics. Kurtzman is probably best known as the comic genius who created MAD in the early 1950s at Entertaining Comics (E.C.), first as a wild color comic book, then as a black & white magazine. MAD, under Kurtzman, vigorously and fearlessly lampooned American institutions, including other comic strips and television, a medium then in its infancy. He rediscovered and developed Alfred E. Neuman, MAD's moronic gap-toothed mascot, created the distinctive logos, drew many early covers and wrote most of the material for the historic first 28 issues, leaving abruptly in a bitter dispute over equity with E.C. publisher William M. Gaines. While at E.C. Kurtzman also wrote, edited and contributed to two other ground-breaking comic book series, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, war comics that refused to glorify war. In 1957, after departing MAD, Kurtzman created Trump, a glossy high-budget satire magazine for Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who pulled the plug after only two glorious issues. Kurtzman then partnered with Harry Chester and fellow cartoonists Jack Davis, Will Elder, Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in 1958, creating Humbug. The innovative but ill-fated publication lasted eleven issues. In 1959 Kurtzman on his own created the first pocketbook of all-new comics, Jungle Book. Its impact was profound but it too was a commercially unsuccessful venture. During this period Kurtzman created some of his best solo work, such as The Grasshopper and The Ant and other features for magazines like Esquire and Pageant. He tried in vain to sell newspaper strip concepts to various syndicates. He then partnered with publisher James Warren to create his final satire publication, Help! While at Help! in the early '60s Kurtzman discovered and gave first national exposure to young cartoonists Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Lynch and Skip Williamson, all later integral to the "underground" comix movement. Another discovery, Gloria Steinem was a Kurtzman assistant and contributor at Help! before becoming the founder of Ms. and a feminist icon. Steinem's replacement was an equally unknown college drop-out Terry Gilliam. By selecting an obscure British actor named John Cleese to appear in a fumetti (story using panels of captioned photos) and introducing him to Gilliam, Kurtzman planted the seed for what would become Monty Python's Flying Circus. R. Crumb was on his way to New York to replace Gilliam when Help! folded. While at Help! Kurtzman created a hilarious Candide-like feature called "Goodman Beaver" with collaborator Will Elder. Kurtzman took the Goodman concept to a then more financially secure Hefner, who approved a sex change to the character. The resulting "Little Annie Fanny," premiering in Playboy in 1962, was the most lavish comic strip ever created. "Annie" continued as a Playboy mainstay until 1988.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Denis Kitchen Publishing Co., LLC (August 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971008000
• ISBN-13: 978-0971008007
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,798,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kurtzman at his biting, satiric best, with both words and pictures, March 29, 2009

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Andromeda "Palimino" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Grasshopper and the Ant by Harvey Kurtzman (Hardcover)

This is one of the few comics that Harvey Kurtzman both wrote and drew. It was done in 1960, after HUMBUG had folded, and before Kurtzman did HELP for Warren. He was on his own, had just done JUNGLE BOOK for Ballentine, and was working for Esquire magazine, doing ink and watercolor comics.

"The Grasshopper and the Ant" was created when his brush technique was in top form, and the art in this volume is striking. This book is the only reprint of this work, and the reproduction is gorgeous, done from the original art, at it's original, digest, size. The colors are vibrant, and each page of the story is given a leaf in the book, there is nothing printed on the backs of leaves. The ink is palpably thick on each page. The paper is a heavy, white bond. The spine is stitched. The book is built to last and enjoy for years.

The story is prime Kurtzman satire - it is listed on this page as for "young adult" tho I can hardly imagine a young adult enjoying it. Kurtzman uses the trappings of the Aesop's fable to tell a story about the existential choices in life, and how those choices intertwine with fate. I can't imagine a young adult being able to relate to those sort of choices, being too young, and being turned off at what seems like a "children's book."

In the story, the Grasshopper is a hipster, who lives life for the moment, and the Ant is a workholic who values security for the future. The Grasshopper becomes more convinced, as the story progresses, that he must live for the moment, as he watches friends suffer at the hands of predators. How can we live for tomorrow, when we may be gone today. But the Ant continues his work - while the Grasshopper rants philosophically, the Ant is storing away food for leaner times.

This story is parable with echoes from Kurtzman's own life, as Denis Kitchen illustrates in his excellent introduction. Kurtzman was married, with four kids, working in a business that only paid by the page of finished work. He also was the hippest cartoonist of his time period, a frequent visitor at the Playboy mansion, who hobnobbed with jazz musicians and models. His dark, but comic, look at the two sides of this equation, the need to enjoy life, and the need for security, is and hardhitting. The art is vintage Kurtzman, with that gorgeous thick line, exaggerated facial expressions, kinetic - at times frentic - energy, and oddly alluring women. He gives each season of the year it's own color palette with the watercolor wash. It is a visual delight, as well as a powerfully written book. I highly recommend this forgotten gem. It was originally priced at twenty-five bucks, and even tho it is a thin book, the book itself is so well produced, that it is a work of art as well.