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Goodman Beaver
Gift QUALITY as pictured first Edition softcover in very good condition
159 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 12, 2017
This book contains a few irreverent stories staring a young man.
Tarzan is spoofed. Another is a play on Don Quixote, with our protagonist teaming up with a Don Quixote type who fears Russians and sees bad guys everywhere. Another story is a spoof of Superman called S*perm*n (I'm not sure if that's supposed to be funny because it looks like Sperm-man).
I'm not a fan of the old Mad magazine (or more recent ones, for that matter) as I find the humour to be dated. This book, however, had plenty of truly funny bits. Tarzan gets pissed at Jane for not wearing a bra, so she takes her skirt off and ties it to her chest (leaving her bum and vagina exposed) - it's really funny visually, and isn't obvious.
That being said as many funny bits as there are, there are just as many failed attempts (perhaps just dated). The stories don't seem interesting enough to stand on their own.
Ultimately, it was a decent book and I will be checking out more of Kurtzman in the future (if only because of his reputation).
Tarzan is spoofed. Another is a play on Don Quixote, with our protagonist teaming up with a Don Quixote type who fears Russians and sees bad guys everywhere. Another story is a spoof of Superman called S*perm*n (I'm not sure if that's supposed to be funny because it looks like Sperm-man).
I'm not a fan of the old Mad magazine (or more recent ones, for that matter) as I find the humour to be dated. This book, however, had plenty of truly funny bits. Tarzan gets pissed at Jane for not wearing a bra, so she takes her skirt off and ties it to her chest (leaving her bum and vagina exposed) - it's really funny visually, and isn't obvious.
That being said as many funny bits as there are, there are just as many failed attempts (perhaps just dated). The stories don't seem interesting enough to stand on their own.
Ultimately, it was a decent book and I will be checking out more of Kurtzman in the future (if only because of his reputation).
February 5, 2013
Since I grabbed a copy of the Jungle Book, my interest in Kurtzman's work had increased amazingly high, considering that apart from Humbug there had been nothing by him to span curiosity, and even there I was more thrilled by the other guys' jokes...
And there I see it, listed in the Steve Krupp Curio Shoppe catalog.
The Jungle Book stories already had me jumping for more Kurtzman, and this is a happy mariage between Kurtzman's acid commentary and Elder's extremely robust drawing style, which I enjoyed a lot in Humbug. Elder's drawings are much more straightforward than Kurtzman's stylized, manically scribbled figures and silhouettes. And yes, the "chicken fat" is there, bubbling in many scenes, and that's why I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of the beginning scene of the first story, Goodman Meets T*rz*n. The contextual humor might be dated to youngsters (hell, all those allusions to the Cold War), though if one stops and thinks more about it... maybe its essence hasn't been lost. Apart from the dichotomic Western/Commie jabs - and, no, fortunately Kurtzman wasn't the kind of guy drawing s**t about Spy Killers and the whole Universe descending on Earth to protect America - there is a serious load of cynicism directed towards women and civil society. Actually, these two take the cake. One could understand why Robert Crumb hailed these strips as masterpieces (a big reason for me to buy this book), for their attitude is quite similar to Crumb's critical stance, especially towards sexuality and both genders involved.
I won't waste any more lines detailing Goodman Beaver's character traits and depressing contradictions, but I have to point out instead that this book is an extremely close tie to the Jungle Book, maybe even failing to match that book's greatness. Though Elder was an excellent cartoonist and created very vivid scenery, it seems that his style couldn't match Kurtzman's caricatural and expressionistic style, an obvious fact since it's Kurtzman's scripts doing the background of the stories. The stories' timeframes are also more linear, not as warped as, say, Compulsion on the Range from Jungle Book. It's more about plain visual laffs and less about textual subtleties.
All in all, it still is an interesting read, worthy as a document of the era, and it is a collaboration between two masters. Still, if you want to focus on Kurtzman's best, it's the Jungle Book that one should start with, and even Humbug, if the wallet can hold one's noble intentions.
And there I see it, listed in the Steve Krupp Curio Shoppe catalog.
The Jungle Book stories already had me jumping for more Kurtzman, and this is a happy mariage between Kurtzman's acid commentary and Elder's extremely robust drawing style, which I enjoyed a lot in Humbug. Elder's drawings are much more straightforward than Kurtzman's stylized, manically scribbled figures and silhouettes. And yes, the "chicken fat" is there, bubbling in many scenes, and that's why I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of the beginning scene of the first story, Goodman Meets T*rz*n. The contextual humor might be dated to youngsters (hell, all those allusions to the Cold War), though if one stops and thinks more about it... maybe its essence hasn't been lost. Apart from the dichotomic Western/Commie jabs - and, no, fortunately Kurtzman wasn't the kind of guy drawing s**t about Spy Killers and the whole Universe descending on Earth to protect America - there is a serious load of cynicism directed towards women and civil society. Actually, these two take the cake. One could understand why Robert Crumb hailed these strips as masterpieces (a big reason for me to buy this book), for their attitude is quite similar to Crumb's critical stance, especially towards sexuality and both genders involved.
I won't waste any more lines detailing Goodman Beaver's character traits and depressing contradictions, but I have to point out instead that this book is an extremely close tie to the Jungle Book, maybe even failing to match that book's greatness. Though Elder was an excellent cartoonist and created very vivid scenery, it seems that his style couldn't match Kurtzman's caricatural and expressionistic style, an obvious fact since it's Kurtzman's scripts doing the background of the stories. The stories' timeframes are also more linear, not as warped as, say, Compulsion on the Range from Jungle Book. It's more about plain visual laffs and less about textual subtleties.
All in all, it still is an interesting read, worthy as a document of the era, and it is a collaboration between two masters. Still, if you want to focus on Kurtzman's best, it's the Jungle Book that one should start with, and even Humbug, if the wallet can hold one's noble intentions.
January 28, 2013
Goodman Beaver was Harvey Kurtzman's last attempt to do satire on his own terms. Starting with the creation of MAD, going on through the short lived Trump and Humbug, Kurtzman finally ended up in the editors chair at HELP. HELP was a humor magazine published by Jim Warren that combined photo montage with humor and cartoon pieces. During his tenure Kurtzman, along with his longtime friend and collaborator Will Elder, produced a handful of brilliant satiric stories that took on hedonism, gun control and Superman among other things. Kurtzman's layouts and writing was razor sharp and Elder's finished art was hillariousely sublime. His sight gags are a wonder to behold. The books introductory materials do a great job of introducing Kurtman and Elder to a general readership. Unfortunately, not all the published stories are collected in this volume. The piece which lampooned both Playboy magazine and Archie comics led to a series of lawsuits filed by Archie publishing. The result was that this brilliant story hasn't seen the light of day since it's original publication and isn't included here. Playboy to their credit not only didn't sue but they would eventually hire both Kurtzman and Elder to produce a comic strip called "Little Annie Fanny". However, despite the strips beautiful production values it paled when compared Kurtzman's previous work and therefore Goodman marks the last time that Kurtzman was able to attempt satire on his own terms.
February 1, 2024
Incredible work from Kurtzman and Elder. This is probably my favorite work from them. Really funny, and beautifully written and illustrated! I’m grateful to have finally found and read this collection.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews