Harvey Kurtzman was born on this date in 1924. Kurtzman was a journeyman artist for much of the Golden Age of comics, learning his craft and looking for an outlet for his wacky imagination. He finally found his footing with EC Comics where he co-created MAD. He also produced some powerful images in titles such as Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales. Kurtzman left MAD and tried to recreate that success with other titles such as TRUMP, HUMBUG and HELP! but despite some high quality failed to find the sales success. Along with Will Elder he co-created Little Annie Fanny and produced that feature for Playboy magazine for many years.
When Harvey Kurtzman talked William Gaines Jr. into publishing a little humor comic, they changed the landscape of comedy in America. MAD became the template for comedy going forward and bred a host of imitations. Here are some of those four-color dopplegangers.
EC even imitated MAD itself when they published PANIC, a magazine of humor by EC's other mainstay editor, Al Fiedstein.
Then in an attempt to placate censors and Kurtzman himself, Gaines decided to make the comic book a magazine. With the four colors gone, the increased size made MAD a publication alongside others targeted to an older reader. But the success of that change too sparked imitations, among them magazines by Kurtzman himself for other publishers.
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No one has ever come close to replicating the format and fun that the team from Mad created . Humour in comics can easily turn into sillyness and zany strips but Mad always had a bit of class to it. It was great to see the other humour covers most I have never heard of before but Yak Yak looks interesting.
ReplyDeleteMAD had such great talents, especially on the artwork. John Severin's work elevated Cracked to the number two spot. Other mags lacked that level of craftsmanship for the most part. It was a big deal when Mort Todd was able to snatch away Don Martin for Cracked.
DeleteThe creators of TRUMP magazine could never have imagined there'd come a time when the US president was more absurd than anything they invented in their publication!
ReplyDeleteBoth absurd and tragic.
DeleteWow - I have only ever heard and read Mad, Cracked, and National Lampoon. I remember some pretty edgy humor and perhaps a chance for a little nudity. It is amazing how vast the genre was at one point. Thanks for enlightening me.
ReplyDeleteFor a brief moment it was overflowing! NatLamp was for those who felt they'd aged out of MAD, and then later I realized I'd aged back into MAD.
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