 Harvey Kurtzman founded the satirical Mad magazine in 1952; an early fan was onetime cartoonist Hugh Hefner, who founded the men's magazine Playboy in 1953. Hefner offered Kurtzman an opportunity to conceive a new humor magazine for his enterprise, which the cartoonist accepted when he left Mad in 1956 in an ownership dispute. Kurtzman took most of the Mad artists with him, including frequent collaborator Will Elder, to create the adult-oriented humor magazine Trump. Although it sold well, Hefner ran into financial problems in 1957 and halted Trump after two issues. He provided office space for the artists, from which they self-published the satirical magazine Humbug in 1957 – 58. It failed to gain a significant following, and a dejected Kurtzman began pitching feature proposals to Playboy, all of which were rejected. However, he received a note from Hefner: "I bow to no one in my appreciation for H. Kurtzman." Hefner's praise encouraged Kurtzman to meet with publisher Ian Ballantine and create Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book (1959). This introduced the innocent and idealistic Goodman Beaver, a male character who continued to appear — with artwork by Elder — in Kurtzman's Help! (1960).
