Harvey Kurtzman

Harvey Kurtzman was born on October 3, 1924, and became one of the most influential satirists in American comics history. He died on February 21, 1993.

His path into comics led him to EC Comics in 1950, where he wrote and edited two war titles, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, bringing to both a meticulous researcher's eye and a genuine antiwar sensibility. In 1952 he created Mad, the parody comic book that would define him. Working in a manner comparable to a film auteur, Kurtzman scripted every story and supplied tight layouts that his artists — most often Will Elder, Wally Wood, and Jack Davis — were expected to follow closely. Mad's sharp dissection of pop culture and American social life made it genuinely distinctive. When EC converted it to a magazine format in 1955, tensions over financial control led Kurtzman to leave the following year.

He subsequently edited the short-lived Trump and the self-published Humbug, and in 1959 produced Jungle Book, considered the first book-length original comics work aimed at adults. His humor magazine Help! (1960–1965) gave early platforms to Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and Terry Gilliam. From 1962 until 1988 he co-created and wrote Little Annie Fanny for Playboy. He also taught cartooning at the School of Visual Arts beginning in 1973.

The Harvey Award was named in his honor in 1988, and he entered the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1989.