Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor

by Bill Schelly

Harvey Kurtzman created MAD, and MAD revolutionized humor in America. Kurtzman's groundwork as the original editor, artist, and sole writer of MAD provided the foundation for 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? Bill Schelly's heavily researched biography finally and fully answers these question for the first time. Through fresh interviews with Kurtzman's colleagues, friends and family, including Hugh Hefner, Al Feldstein, James Warren, R. Crumb, Jack Davis, Gilbert Shelton, and many others, and an examination of Kurtzman's personal archives, this book tells the true story of one of the 20th century's greatest humorists. His family life, an FBI investigation during the McCarthy Era, his legal battles with William M. Gaines (publisher of MAD), all are revealed for the first time. Rich with anecdotes, from Kurtzman's Brooklyn beginnings to his post-MAD years, when his ceaseless creativity produced more innovations: new magazines, a graphic novel, and "Little Annie Fanny" in Playboy.

Genres: Biography, Comics, Nonfiction, Humor, History, Art, Comix

644 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2015

About the author

BILL SCHELLY is the Eisner Award-winning author of HARVEY KURTZMAN, THE MAN WHO CREATED MAD AND REVOLUTIONIZED HUMOR IN AMERICA, voted Best Comics-Related Book of 2015. He began researching the history of comic fandom in 1991, resulting in the book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom (1995), then became associate editor of Alter Ego magazine, a post he holds to the present day. Schelly has written several biographies of film and comics artists, including movie comedian Harry Langdon and comic book scribe Otto Binder, co-creator of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. In 2008, he authored Man of Rock, a biography of celebrated comics writer-artist Joe Kubert. Schelly's American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1950’S (2013) was nominated for a Harvey Award. He has received acclaim as the premier historian of comic fandom, and perhaps the top biographer of comic book creators.

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterfully done. Bill Schelly has written what will likely be the definitive biography of one of the comic industry's least-known greats. Harvey was anything but prolific, and so much of his work was in collaboration--most often and notably with Will Elder--that it's easy to overlook his influence. Suffice to say, that even if he'd done nothing outside of his work for EC on Frontline Combat, Two-Fisted Tales, and Mad, he'd still be worth reading about. That he did so much more than those three books is just the icing on the cake.

As Schelly points out in his preface, while Harvey was interviewed at and about various stages of his career, no one had taken the trouble of putting all of that material together in biographical form. The bibliography, acknowledgements, and chapter notes add significantly to the length of the book, but they also demonstrate the thoroughness of Schelly's research. He appears to have left no stone unturned. I've been a Kurtzman fan for quite some time, but there are projects in here that I had no clue even existed. Now that the biography is in place, hopefully someone will take the time and trouble to do a multivolume definitive reprinting of all of his work, both as writer and artist. It won't be easy--persuading Archie Comics to allow the reprinting of that one Goodman Beaver story, for example--but the end result should be more than worth it. Harvey was one of the greats, and his work should be familiar to anyone interested in the history of comics.

One valuable bit of information I learned from this book is the proper pronunciation of one of those random words that used to pepper the early issues of Mad: potrzebie. It's Polish, and pronounced "por-CHYEB-ya". That alone was worth the price of the book. Recommended!

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about a great soul, well researched and written.
Harvey Kurtzman is part of the connective tissue of comics, storytelling, and pop culture of the 20th century.
Highest recommendation.

[Donna Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kurtzman was a comic genius who was ahead of his time. He created MAD magazine and also left his mark in comic book history and in men's magazines such as Playboy. My great thanks go to Edelweiss, Above the Treeline and the publishers for the DRC.

Schelly, another MAD alum, has fastidiously documented every aspect of this biography. It begins with his birth to parents active in the Communist Party USA and the International Workers of the World. Kurtzman himself was not a Communist, but opposed racism and was a progressive thinker. He was educated at a public art school in New York City that was funded by the Works Progress Administration, which is where he learned lettering skills that would stand him in good stead in the comics industry.

MAD was a creature of its time, and Schelly suggests that even comics, which were frowned upon by the older generation, were a tool that young people used to break free of the repressive society of the 1950s. Kurtzman created war comics and horror comics for EC, and maintained a furious work ethic. His humor entries began as "Look Here!", a single page of filler, and then grew when comics began to wane under the government's newly devised Comic Code, which was itself a blow to the First Amendment and drove a number of comics out of business. In fact, MAD began as a comic also, but went to magazine format in order to break free of code restrictions. It never applied for code approval, and was a breath of fresh air and gut-splitting humor to those of us that grew up reading it. Unfortunately, he and Bill Gaines, the publisher, came to a parting of the way after the magazine's first year had ended, so although his signature still graces the cover of every subsequent issue because of the continued use of his cover art, those seeking a biography of MAD Magazine (and I confess I was) are not going to get much of it.

Multiple examples of Kurtzman's work (signed "Kurtz" with a stick-figure man following) are given full page space in this volume. My advice to you is that if you read it, you don't buy it digitally. There is so much detail that as the text suggests, one needs a microscope to get it all at full size. Of course, mine was free, and reading it digitally was still a privilege in such a case. If you're going to pony up the money, try to get it on paper. I think you'll enjoy it more.

I confess I was personally never interested in comics, and Playboy magazine is a hot-button subject, and so I skimmed that portion of the biography.

Kurtzman was diagnosed with Parkinson's in his late 50's and then cancer as well. He died at 68 and was cremated.

Reading Schelly's biography made me crave a coffee-table volume of MAD Magazine art. I kept a copy of this subversive little periodical tucked inside my biology text book in middle school. I ask you to imagine MAD Magazine and Watergate. I wish I had saved every issue, but I passed them on to friends, which is also a great thing to do.

MAD as we knew it is moribund. It was taken over--if I remember correctly, by the TIME people, but certainly by a big-business press--and it has been shrunk, commercialized and sanitized to where it's no longer interesting. The work of Kurtzman, Schelly, Jaffee, and the other MAD geniuses was what made it so brilliant.

For those with a strong interest in comic art history, highly recommended. For those interested in MAD history, recommended if you can find it at a discount or in a library.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a substantial read, and Schelly has done an outstanding job of narrating the life of Kurtzman. As he has done with his other biographies, he doesn't romanticize his subject or come to him uncritically. The assessment of the artist's life is balanced and objective, relying on a variety of sources, including personal interviews. If you're interested in the history of American humor in the twentieth century, then understanding the career of Harvey Kurtzman is a must...making this book an indispensable guide.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Schelly's exhaustingly researched look at America's most influential humourist/artist/editor/teacher/mentor/trendsetter/family man
without whom there will be no Mad, underground comics, SNL and the list goes on.
Come to think of it, a bigger influence than Stan Lee in my formative years.
What a man.
Whan a biography!

[Akin]

Haaretz Books

The Jewish comic-book revolutionary behind Mad magazine
A new biography of Harvey Kurtzman pays tribute to the Jewish artist’s genius but struggles to escape the long shadow of his days at Mad magazine in the 1950s, much like Kurtzman himself.
By Akin Ajayi | Jun. 19, 2015 | 10:00 PM

“Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America,” by Bill Schelly, Fantagraphics Books, 644 pages, $34.99

Sometime in 1988, Harvey Kurtzman invited Art Spiegelman to guest-lecture at his cartooning class at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Spiegelman was already a leading light of the alternative comics movement (he’d win a Pulitzer Prize, in 1992, for “Maus”), and it was expected that he would talk about his career. But instead, Spiegelman turned the spotlight around, talking about the inspiration for his comic-book career – Kurtzman himself.

Spiegelman ran through Kurtzman’s early successes, but talked most about Kurtzman’s greatest contribution to comic books, as the creator of Mad magazine (he would later document the afternoon, comic strip-style, in a New Yorker tribute shortly after Kurtzman’s death in 1993). “Mad was an urban junk collage that said ‘Pay attention! The mass media are lying to you … including this comic book!’” Spiegelman told the class. “I think Harvey’s Mad was more important than pot and LSD in shaping the generation that protested the Vietnam War.”

Kurtzman’s voice eventually broke the awed silence. “Gee Artie, that was terrific,” he said. “Couldja come back next week and give us the same lecture again?”

“Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America,” by comic-book artist and cultural historian Bill Schelly, is a hard-working, exhaustively researched attempt to capture the creative essence of Kurtzman, regarded by many of his peers as the 20th century’s most influential proponent of the comic-book form. Mad, which Kurtzman cofounded, scripted and edited between its inauguration in 1952 and his acrimonious departure in 1956, changed the nature of satire in the United States, permanently.

Schelly’s biography places the Mad years at the pinnacle of a 50-year career, one that was distinguished by Kurtzman’s influence on a generation of cartoonists, inspired by his peerless work ethic and inventiveness.


Bill Schelly's 'Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America.' (by Fantagraphics)
Kurtzman was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, the second son of Jewish migrants from Odessa. His father, a jeweller, died suddenly when Kurtzman was four, leaving the family destitute until his mother Edith remarried. Schelly’s research suggests that Kurtzman’s experiences at that time – the brothers were briefly placed in an orphanage because their mother couldn’t care for them – stayed with him throughout his life. “I appreciated a buck,” Kurtzman would later say. “I was aware of the fact that making a living was hard work.”

Schelly states that Kurtzman was strongly influenced by his domestic circumstances. His stepfather, a brass engraver working in printing, was a Communist and trade union activist; Edith closely read the Communist newspapers, comparing their perspective on contemporary events against the mainstream version. “Harvey picked up his mother’s propensity for ‘looking between the lines,’” Schelly notes. “This capacity … became an essential element in his later success as a satirist.”

Kurtzman’s artistic abilities manifested themselves early. Comic books, being easier to read than plain text, were a popular diversion for immigrants – children and adults alike. Schelly writes that even from an early age, Kurtzman dreamt of becoming a cartoonist. His family was supportive: his mother paid for extra art lessons, and Kurtzman’s horizons were broadened by regular museum visits. When he was 12, he stumbled across a stash of college humor magazines “on a trash heap, or in someone’s cellar,” along the lines of The Harvard Lampoon. The discovery nudged him along in a particular direction. “It was a major consciousness-raising moment when suddenly I became aware of a certain approach to humor,” Kurtzman later recalled. “It was that quality of parody and satire that was so unique.”

In 1937, Kurtzman won a scholarship to the selective High School of Music & Art (M&A). He was a year younger than his classmates, and was rather diffident by nature – according to his older brother, Kurtzman was “stiff as a board. He couldn’t put two words together.” But his artistic talent won him admirers.

Cutthroat business of comics

The book is at its most engaging during this “early” period, from high school to the founding of Mad magazine in 1952. This is because Schelly approaches Kurtzman’s work, life and the surrounding sociopolitical context as an all-encompassing tableau. Kurtzman’s career choices, we learn, were narrowed by the limited options open to people of his lower middle class immigrant milieu. After army service during World War II (Kurtzman enlisted as an infantryman, but never saw active duty), he freelanced as a cartoonist before being taken up by Timely Comics (later to evolve into the mighty Marvel Comics) and Stan Lee to produce an occasional humor strip, Hey Look. This provided regular, albeit not lucrative, work for a number of years.

The 1940s and early ’50s are commonly described as the golden age of comic-book creation. Schelly observes, though, that the medium’s popularity disguised an exploitative and cutthroat business. Titles were often churned out with little regard for quality or originality. The manifest steps Kurtzman made in his professional development were neutralized, in his mind, by the fact that he worked too hard for too little. With two associates, Will Elder and Charles Stern, Kurtzman tried to run a commercial studio, but it never fully got off the ground. It did, however, become a creative hub that facilitated lifelong friendships – with Wally Wood (best known for Daredevil) and René Goscinny, writer of the “Asterix” comic books, among others.

Money problems and professional dissatisfaction forced Kurtzman to continue shopping his wares about. In 1949, a speculative approach to the fledgling EC Comics, run by Bill Gaines, was his turning point. Gaines had become a comic-book proprietor entirely by chance, after inheriting the business from his father; it appears that his distance from industry conventions – specifically, treating artists and writers as disposable and replaceable – freed him to engage meaningfully with Kurtzman.

EC presented Kurtzman with relative editorial freedom for the first time. After first working on in-house science fiction and horror titles, Kurtzman developed a war title, “Two-Fisted Tales.” Unlike competing titles in the genre, Kurtzman distinguished his work with exacting research and a nuanced, evenhanded approach to the unpleasantness of warfare. “I don’t regard myself as a man who pushes specific opinions or strong points of view,” Schelly quotes Kurtzman. Nonetheless, the title and its marked lack of gung-ho American superiority – particularly important at the height of the Korean War – caught the attention of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. The FBI briefly – privately – considered prosecuting Kurtzman for sedition. Schelly reports the incident dutifully, but says little more besides.



From 'Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America.' (Fantagraphics)

MAD goes mainstream – sort of

Kurtzman’s painstaking approach to his work had downsides in addition to the low pay. Because EC’s artistes were paid by output, Kurtzman was in effect penalized for his perfectionism. Gaines suggested that Kurtzman return to his comic humor roots as a solution. A magazine based on social observation, played primarily for laughs, would take less time and effort to produce, he suggested. Kurtzman agreed, and Mad was born. The magazine wasn’t an instant success – the first issue, debuting in August 1952, selling less than half of its print run. But issue #4, a parody of the Superman franchise, found an appreciative audience and sold out quickly. The Mad phenomenon was born.

What contributed to the magazine’s runaway success? Kurtzman’s cartooning style lent itself particularly well to satire, Schelly points out. Never a simple gag man, Kurtzman preferred to build a story toward an over-the-top punch line – taking a scenario to its natural conclusion, then nudging it just that bit beyond to highlight the underlying absurdity. He latched onto the popular culture lodestones of the time: Disney, Superman, the McCarthy hearings (which he turned into a game show), the all-American Archie comics. The Red Threat had forced large swaths of the entertainment industry into implicit or overt censorship. But comic books were lightly regulated, giving Mad’s satire an unfettered path to the mainstream.

Kurtzman had a way with his audience, too. Mad worked because it created a de-facto community, readers who “got” that the joke was on them, but were able to laugh at themselves nonetheless. Consciously or not, Mad’s house style reinforced this conceit, frequently breaching the comic-book equivalent of the fourth wall to address the reader directly, and employing Yiddishisms and obscure words (using the Yiddish ganefs, thieves, in place of “goons” in a story about a pair of bumbling crooks in Mad #1, for instance) as a semi-secret language accessible to those in the know. Alfred E. Neuman, jug-eared and gap-toothed, was introduced by Kurtzman as the magazine’s mascot in late 1954; Neuman’s clueless optimism and catchphrase – “What, me worry?” – captured the good-humored, accessible thrust of Mad’s satire.

Schelly also points out that many of the writers and artists working at Mad had similar second-generation Jewish migrant roots, and thus common formative experiences that often extended to a particular way of looking at the world. Despite this, Mad appealed to a broad audience; by the end of 1953, it had a print run of 750 thousand, twice as much as any other EC title.

But all good things come to an end. Ironically, Kurtzman was working harder than ever and still felt shortchanged. Gaines and Kurtzman, the money man and the chief talent of EC Comics, had different priorities for the magazine. Gaines’ appointment of an abrasive business manager widened the distance between the two; the ultimate break, in 1956, was inevitable.



Alfred E. Neuman, the mascot of Mad magazine (Wikimedia Commons)

The last big gig

Kurtzman leapt at a proposition, from Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, to recreate Mad, no expenses spared. Unfortunately, Kurtzman took Hefner at his word: The new venture, Trump, only lasted for two issues before being canned. Kurtzman had allowed costs to spiral out of control. As Hefner memorably put it, “I gave Harvey Kurtzman an unlimited budget, and he exceeded it.”

Another venture, an artists’ cooperative called Humbug, floundered in part due to the lack of business experience on the part of its principals (mainly the artists whom Kurtzman had recruited for the ill-fated Trump). Kurtzman made do with various freelance gigs and a final stab at editorial autonomy, Help!, which, on the whole, was distinguished more by its collaborations – Terry Gilliam and Robert Crumb both contributed; Gloria Steinem was its editorial backbone – than its commercial impact.

Despite his reservations about Kurtzman’s financial acumen, Hefner remained a fan, and in 1962 offered him what gradually became Kurtzman’s last big gig: a satirical, albeit risqué, comic strip for Playboy called Little Annie Fanny. Annie, a buxom ingenue, was an innocent wandering through a world tainted by venality; she also had the curious habit of losing most of her clothing at some point in every strip. Kurtzman, as was his habit, thoroughly researched each episode (subjects ran from the Women’s Lib movement to the Ayatollah Khomeini). In Schelly’s telling, Kurtzman and collaborator Will Elder worked hard to negotiate the line between satire and salaciousness. Still, one takes from Schelly’s text the slightest of suggestions that as time moved on – the strip ran until 1988 – the changing social mores left Little Annie Fanny, and Kurtzman, behind. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease at this point; this, and the cancer that led to his death in 1993, meant that his last few years were increasing dominated by ill-health.

As a chronological survey of Kurtzman’s career, Schelly’s book is a comprehensive, informed endeavor, and will certainly fill many of the gaps in Kurtzman’s professional history. But post-Mad, it doesn’t quite manage to place his work within the social context that spawned it. The second half of this biography struggles – in some ways like Kurtzman – to escape the long shadow cast by the first. “Harvey Kurtzman…” is very much, like its subject, dominated by the unlikely success of a magazine called Mad.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book at the library book sale for $2. It may have been the best $2 I've spent this year. Exhaustively researched and well written, it inspired me to track down much of Harvey kurtzman's work.

[Ernest Spoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really first became aware of Harvey Kurtzman for his Playboy feature ¨Little Annie Fanny.¨ I always looked forward to the Kurtzman-Will Elder comic strip of perpetual ingenue Annie, her roommate Ruthie and Kurtzman/Elder/s skewering of the current ¨scene,¨ whatever it happened to be at any given time. Oh, yeah, and Annie's big cartoon boobies.

While I was too young to actually read the first run of the EC comics books and the original run of Mad that put Harvey Kurtzman's name on the map I did eventually read them in re-print editions.

Yet, curiously enough, I did read Kurtzman's ¨Help!¨ magazine. You see, on hot summer days I'd walk to the local shopping center, it being air conditioned, and wander into the ¨giant,¨ Katz Drug Store. The magazine rack was in the middle of the store and no one, no clerks, no managers, ever seemed to venture there. So, I'd while away an hour or two reading comic books and ¨adult¨ magazines. ¨Help!¨ was one of them.

In fact I clearly remember ¨Christopher's Punctured Romance,¨ about a man, John Cleese, who has an affair with his daughter's Barbie. I remember it well because my kid sister was very ¨into¨ Barbie at that time. I remember how heartbroken Christopher was when ¨Ken¨ came into Barbie's life.

This is a well researched and written book. I nearly shed a tear at Schelly's touching description of Kurtzman's last days. He was truly an unassuming yet brave man. Harvey Kurtzman has a far greater influence on world culture than all the politicians and generals of all the nations of the world combined.

[A.L. Sirois · Rating 5 out of 5]

MAD is not the force it once was, but it is nevertheless a household name, and its glory days are fondly remembered. I don't suppose, though, anyone familiar with MAD's history can fail to recognize the name Harvey Kurtzman. After having a successful run with the EC horror and science fiction titles, Kurtzman wanted to do a satirical comic book -- an actual funny funnybook. He succeeded brilliantly, with help from the artists Wally Wood, Jack Davis and Will Elder. But comics weren't really Kurtzman's main concern, and if all you know about him is MAD, then there's a lot more to the story. The book is well-researched and includes lots of great artwork, from Kurtzman himself and others (the endpapers in the hardback are classic panels by Wood from SUPERDUPERMAN and bAT BOY AND RUBIN. Kurtzman left MAD after disputes with its publisher, Bill Gaines, and went on to start HELP and TRUMP -- and to write "Little Annie Fanny" for PLAYBOY. Though debilitated by MS in his final years, he was applauded by artists and writers around the world, and never stopped trying to better his earlier work. It's not hyperbolic to say that during the course of his career he changed the face of humor in America.

[Axel Matfin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing.

A true look into the world of a absolute pioneer of not just humour, but comic art.

I grew up reading the "best of" Mad magazine collections that always seem to circulate. Why is that? Because that shit is fucking genius. Bill Schelly's book gives the story of one of America's legacy artists. It's as if Kurtzman created nuance in the medium of comic books. In my mind he stands shoulder to shoulder with Will Eisner.

If you care about comics as a history and a medium, this book is a must read.

[James Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Schelly's "Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America" is not just a fantastic biography but also an engaging and informative journey through the life of a man who, as editor, artist, and sole writer, created a satirical comic book for EC Comics titled "Tales Calculated to Drive You MAD" with a front cover sidebar stating "Humor in a Jugular Vein." MAD spoofed established comic book characters, movies, and radio/TV shows. MAD became a very popular (and profitable) comic. However, when EC management decided MAD would publish as a magazine, Kurtzman quit.

Schelly's biography describes Kurtzman's growth as a cartoonist and illustrator, including his break into comics and his eventual employment at EC Comics. Kurtzman wrote and illustrated several stories for EC's science fiction title, "Weird Science." His writing and illustrating skills enabled him to create and edit "Two-Fisted Tales," a war comic. That title's success led to "Frontline Combat," a second war title.

Kurtzman ventured into magazine publishing with little success. However, he met "Playboy" publisher Hugh Hefner, who offered Kurtzman an opportunity to create a full-color comic strip. The strip "Little Annie Fanny" focused on a young voluptuous blonde woman, a lovable innocent oblivious to the satirical goings-on around her.

Kurtzman's influence, a testament to his creativity and vision, extended far beyond his own work. He was highly respected by many cartoonists and artists, who admired his unique illustration style and his ability to provide a satirical look at American life. His work, a cornerstone of American humor, continues to inspire and shape the industry. For readers interested in delving into the world of Harvey Kurtzman, "Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America" is a must-read.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent biography of another titan of comics by longtime comics fan and historian Bill Schelly. Harvey Kurtzman's influence on popular culture in the last half of the 20th Century is honestly hard to overstate. Kurtzman, of course was the creator of Mad. And that alone would put him near the top of the pantheon of not just comic creators, but of artists in general. Add to that his editing and writing on EC's war books (Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat) and the influence, if not success of Humbug and Help! (I think that Trump was simply too short-lived to really have much influence) and Kurtzman influenced the likes of René Goscinny, Terry Gilliam, R. Crumb, John Cleese, Roger Ebert, Frank Conniff, Art Spiegelman, Gilbert Shelton, Stephen Spielberg, and the list goes on and on.

Schelly gives us Kurtzman's entire life, his formative years, his early work in comics, leading to "Hey Look!," his move to EC and the creation of his books there, particularly Mad. His failed attempt to gain control of Mad and his subsequent failed attempts to catch that lightning again. It seems pretty clear that, for all his genius, Kurtzman was his own worst enemy. He was too much of a perfectionist to be able to grind out fast work to pad his income. He wasn't a good enough businessman to be able to make any of his self-directed ventures really succeed.

In a better world Kurtzman would be a household name and his contributions to our culture would be lionized. As it is, large amounts of the great comic community no doubt haven't got a clue who Harvey Kurtzman was or what he accomplished. This is a more than solid biography of a very important artist.

[Jason Bergman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive biography of a genius, covering literally every single moment of his career. You might expect a book like this to focus largely on his creative peak, but Schelly devotes the same level of detail to Kurtzman's days at EC as his time teaching at SVA. It's almost a bit too much, and means this is not a biography for the casual Kurtzman fan. But for my fellow Kurtzmaniacs, this is a must-read.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I, like many kids in my generation, read my share of magazines like Mad and Cracked.I can’t say I paid much attention to who wrote or edited any of it. Therefore, I’d never heard of Harvey Kurtzman. I was happy to meet the man behind some of my favourite parodies, such as Starchy and Gasoline Valley.

This is an interesting and well written biography.

[Daniel DeLappe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had a tough time finishing this book. No depth into Harvey’s character. Very disappointed.

[Dan Seitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can go off-track a bit, but highly informative and interesting for comics fans and Mad lovers.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too long and bloated with not nearly enough at all about Mad Magazine.

[Billy Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great biography about the creator of MAD Magazine, and a founding father of satire in comic books, especially the high point of his career at EC Comics.

[Brendan McEachern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!!

[Richard Guion · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the finest biographies I’ve ever listened to, the audiobook narrator was terrific. Invaluable for any fan of comics or into comics history.

[Matthew Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history about a revered comedic artist I knew little about. It wasn't as much about MAD itself as I would have liked.

[Kyle Burley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy biography of a satirical genius. Kurtzman is one of the most important figures in the history of comic books and the development of modern American comedy and Bill Schelly's exhaustively researched book more than does justice to his legacy.
High praise indeed.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unbelievably detailed, especially in the early years.

[Mike Hunchback · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece beyond words ...

[Rob Rooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. If you are a fan of MAD Magazine this is a must read.