The definitive anthology of the pioneering cartoonist and creator of Mad magazine, featuring 100s of classic and never-before-seeen illustrations. It’s difficult to overstate Harvey Kurtzman’s influence on pop culture. He discovered Robert Crumb and gave Gloria Steinem her first job in publishing. Terry Gilliam also started at his side, where he met John Cleese, and the genesis of Monty Python was formed. And Art Spiegelman has stated on record that he owes his career to him. Harvey Kurtzman was an astonishingly talented and influential artist, writer, editor, and satirist. The creator of MAD and Playboy’s “Little Annie Fanny” was called, “One of the most important figures in postwar America” by the New York Times. Kurtzman’s groundbreaking “realistic” war comics of the early ’50s and various satirical publications (MAD, Trump, Humbug, and Help!) had an immense impact on popular culture, inspiring a generation of underground cartoonists and comedians. The Art of Harvey Kurtzman includes hundreds of never-before-seen illustrations, paintings, pencil sketches, newly discovered lost E.C. Comics layouts, color compositions, illustrated correspondence, and vintage photos from the rich Kurtzman archives.

This biography reveals the true story of Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman―the man who revolutionized humor in America; it features new interviews with his colleagues Hugh Hefner, Robert Crumb, and others. Harvey Kurtzman created Mad, and Mad revolutionized humor in America. Kurtzman was the original editor, artist, and sole writer of Mad, one of the greatest publishing successes of the 20th century. But how did Kurtzman invent Mad, and why did he leave it shortly after it burst, nova-like, onto the American scene? For this heavily researched biography, Bill Schelly conducted new interviews with Kurtzman’s colleagues, friends and family, including Hugh Hefner, R. Crumb, Jack Davis, and many others, and examined Kurtzman’s personal archives. The result is the true story of one the 20th century’s greatest humorists: Kurtzman's family life, the details of the FBI's investigation during the McCarthy Era, his legal battles with William M. Gaines (publisher of Mad), are all revealed for the first time. Rich with anecdotes, this book traces Kurtzman’s life from his Brooklyn beginnings to his post-Mad years, when his ceaseless creativity produced more innovations: new magazines, a graphic novel, and Little Annie Fanny inPlayboy.

“Seeing Mad” is an illustrated volume of scholarly essays about the popular and influential humor magazine Mad, with topics ranging across its 65-year history—up to last summer’s downsizing announcement that Mad will publish less new material and will be sold only in comic book shops. Mad magazine stands near the heart of post-WWII American humor, but at the periphery in scholarly recognition from American cultural historians, including humor specialists. This book fills that gap, with perceptive, informed, engaging, but also funny essays by a variety of scholars. The chapters, written by experts on humor, comics, and popular culture, cover the genesis of Mad; its editors and prominent contributors; its regular features and departments and standout examples of their contents; perspectives on its cultural and political significance; and its enduring legacy in American culture.

Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book is considered one of the "Top 100 Comics of the 20th Century" by The Comics Journal and is widely regarded to be a lost classic. Written and illustrated by Kurtzman, Jungle Book inspired and influenced comics creators such as Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Gilbert Shelton, and Terry Gilliam. Back in print for the first time in over twenty-five years, this deluxe hardcover features an essay by comics archivist Denis Kitchen; a new introduction by Gilbert Shelton; a conversational afterword between Pete Poplaski and Robert Crumb; and and a selection of Kurtzman's photographs, correspondence, and artwork. The definitive edition of this graphic novel masterpiece is not to be missed!

A history of the comic book, in which a noted cartoonist demonstrates the aesthetics and power of the medium

When the famed artist Wallace Wood teamed up with legendary writer/editor Harvey Kurtzman to create stories about men in combat, the result was some of the best war stories ever put to paper. Together, Wood and Kurtzman delivered outstanding, deeply human battle tales from the Civil War to World War I to World War II to Korea. From the Army to the Navy to the Air Force to the Marines. From aviators to soldiers to sailors. Wood and Kurtzman pulled no punches in depicting the utter folly, madness, and horror of war — especially in the title story, which depicts the bombing of Nagasaki from the viewpoint of the victims on the ground — a shockingly controversial point of view in 1953!

The team of Harvey Kurtzman and John Severin was one of the most fruitful collaborations in the history of comics. The work they did together brings the gritty realism and psychological truth of Stephen Crane and a verisimilitude to the page that it seems as if they are reporting from the scene. Together with inker and friend Will Elder, whose own obsession for detail perfectly complemented the impact they were all striving to achieve, they produced 34 emotionally draining ― and dramatically eloquent ― war stories in just under three years. This book collects them all.

All of the creator of Mad magazine’s rarely seen EC science fiction comics stories in a single volume! These stories ― all drawn by Kurtzman, some of which he also wrote ― are from the pages of Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Tales from the Crypt, and more. With Al Feldstein, Kurtzman created "Lost in the Microcosm," "The Man Who Raced Time," and "Atom Bomb Thief." There's also "The Radioactive Child," "The Last War on Earth," and the titular story, a cautionary tale about how the laws of physics would impact a real-world superhero, delivered in a uniquely bold, slashing cartoony-but-dead-serious style.