page_title: Harvey Kurtzman
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Harvey Kurtzman / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Discussion panel on Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book on Saturday, October 11, 2014 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, Day 3 of the 2014 New York Comic Con. From left to right are Kurtzman's daughter, Nellie Kurtzman, author and professor David Hajdu, cartoonist and publisher Denis Kitchen, cartoonists Jay Lynch and John Holmstrom and comics critic and editor Bill Kartapolous, acting as moderator. This photo was created by Luigi Novi. It is not in the public domain, and use of this file outside of the licensing terms is a copyright violation. If you would like to use this image outside of the Wikimedia projects, you may do so, only if I am properly credited, either by linking the photograph to this page, or with an easily visible credit placed near the photo in each instance in which it is used. Please credit authorship as follows: &#160;© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Please maintain the original file name in all uses. You can see a gallery of some of my other photos here. If you have any questions, you can contact me by sending me an email or leaving a note at the bottom of my talk page.
context_page_description: Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book Mad from 1952 until 1956, and illustrating the Little Annie Fanny strips in Playboy from 1962 until 1988. His work is noted for its satire and parody of popular culture, social critique, and attention to detail. Kurtzman's working method has been likened to that of an auteur, and he expected those who illustrated his stories to follow his layouts strictly.
  Kurtzman began to work on the New Trend line of comic books at EC Comics in 1950. He wrote and edited the Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat war comic books, where he also drew many of the carefully researched stories, before he created his most-remembered comic book, Mad, in 1952. Kurtzman scripted the stories and had them drawn by top EC cartoonists, most frequently Will Elder, Wally Wood, and Jack Davis; the early Mad was noted for its social critique and parodies of pop culture. The comic book switched to a magazine format in 1955, and Kurtzman left it in 1956 over a dispute with EC's owner William Gaines over financial control.
context_section_description: Along with cartoonists such as Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, and Carl Barks, Kurtzman is regularly cited as one of the defining creators of the Golden Age of American comic books.  In 2003, The New York Times described Kurtzman as "one of the most important figures in postwar America" over Mad's influence on popular culture.  This was an upgrade from the Times' obituary for Kurtzman in 1993, which said he had "helped found Mad Magazine." This prompted an angry response to the newspaper from Art Spiegelman, who complained that awarding Kurtzman partial credit for starting Mad was "like saying Michelangelo helped paint the Sistine Chapel just because some Pope owned the ceiling."
  Kurtzman acted as mentor to a large number of cartoonists, such as Terry Gilliam, Robert Crumb, and Gilbert Shelton.  Students of his at the School of Visual Arts included John Holmstrom, Batton Lash, and Drew Friedman.  Kurtzman, and particularly his work on Mad, is the most frequently cited influence on the underground comix movement—comics historian Mark Estren called Mad "the granddaddy of the underground comics".  In 1958, Robert Crumb and his older brother Charles self-published three issues of the Humbug-inspired fanzine Foo in 1958.  The venture was not a financial success, and Crumb turned to producing comics to satisfy himself.  In 1964 Kurtzman published his work in Help!.
  Kurtzman's style of humor influenced countercultural comedians from the 1960s on, including the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, according to member Harry Shearer.  Help! contributor Terry Gilliam, who went on to be a member of Monty Python, called Kurtzman "[i]n many ways ... one of the godparents of Monty Python".  In his 1985 film Brazil, Terry Gilliam gave Ian Holm's character the name "Kurtzmann".  Underground cartoonist Robert Crumb asserted that one of Kurtzman's cover images for Humbug "changed [his] life" and that another Mad cover image "changed the way [he] saw the world forever!"  On Kurtzman's influence Time editor Richard Corliss stated, "Almost all American satire today follows a formula that Harvey Kurtzman thought up."
  While some, such as R. C. Harvey considered it a masterpiece, others such as Michael Dooley felt Little Annie Fanny was "known more for its lavish production values than its humor", or that it compromised Kurtzman's genius.  A minority of underground cartoonists considered him a sell out for compromising his ideals by working for Playboy for twenty-six years.  Many fans consider Help! to be Kurtzman's "last hurrah".
  The Kirby Awards came to an end in 1987, and the Harvey Awards and Eisner Awards took its place.  Named in Kurtzman's honor, the Harveys are administered by Fantagraphics Books, and nominees and winners are selected by comics professionals.  Kurtzman was one of seven cartoonists featured in the traveling "Masters of American Comics" exhibition in 2005–2006.
  To Comics Journal editor and Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth, Kurtzman's style "achieves some sort of Platonic ideal of cartooning.  Harvey was a master of composition, tone and visual rhythm, both within the panel and among the panels comprising the page.  He was also able to convey fragments of genuine humanity through an impressionistic technique that was fluid and supple."  Comics critic and historian R. C. Harvey conjectured that Kurtzman "may be the most influential American cartoonist since Walt Disney", and comics historian Don Markstein considered him "among the most influential cartoonists of the 20th century". In its list of the 20th century's best hundred English-language comics, The Comics Journal awarded Kurtzman five of the slots:
   Mad #1–24, 1952–1956, Edited by Harvey Kurtzman
   The War Comics of Harvey Kurtzman, 1950–1955, Harvey Kurtzman and various
   Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book, 1959
   Hey Look!, 1946–1949, Harvey Kurtzman
   Goodman Beaver, 1962, Harvey Kurtzman & Will Elder
  In 2012, Kurtzman's estate and Al Feldstein filed to reclaim the copyrights on their 1950s work at EC.  The claim was based on changes to copyright laws made in 1976, in which
caption: Discussion panel on Jungle Book at the 2014 New York Comic Con.  From left to right are Kurtzman's daughter, Nellie, David Hajdu, Denis Kitchen, Jay Lynch, John Holmstrom, and Bill Kartalopoulos.
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