In the biography, richly illustrated with Kurtzman drawings, one encounters such names as Jack Davis, Bill Gaines, Wallace Wood, Al Feldstein, Dave Berg, Al Jaffee and Will Elder, all of which appeared prominently and frequently in the magazine during its prime. Gaines was the publisher, the others comic artists and writers.
Kurtzman, then working as a comic book artist and writer for Gaines, got the idea for Mad at just the right time. Not only was the world ready for a humor magazine of this sort in the 1950s, but Gaines was in financial trouble. Comic books were under assault for supposedly poisoning the minds of youngsters, especially the violent kind of comics that Gaines specialized in. Mad was a different kind of comic book, and very soon it evolved into a real magazine, not a comic book at all.
Yet Kurtzman and Gaines didn't get along, and Kurtzman actually worked on only a handful of issues of Mad, yet his influence remained throughout its long life. Years later he returned to the magazine briefly.
After he left Mad, Kurtzman struggled for many years. He started a number of other humor magazines, such as Humbug, Trump and Help!, but none of them caught on as Mad did. Mostly he lacked the financial backing to keep his magazines going until they found their audience. Then Hugh Hefner of Playboy came to his rescue. Soon Kurtzman and Elder were producing the Little Annie Fannie comic strip that appeared in the magazine for years. Kurtzman soon lost interest in the strip and hated Hefner's constant interference, yet it paid the bills.
Kurtzman's work, as well as his career as a teacher of comic art, influenced a great many younger artists, including Robert Crumb and Terry Gilliam. Feminist Gloria Steinem, briefly his assistant on Help! as Gilliam was later, also features prominently in his life.
This biography is thick, heavy and constantly entertaining, even if one chooses to read only the comics it contains.
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