It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Monster Party

  My version of Francesca from Mad Monster Party (1967) in her green dress, done in brush pen.

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Wood, Jerry, Wood

Although my admiration for Mad Magazine and its artists is well-documented on this site, I realized I had yet to do any post highlighting seminal comic artist, Wally Wood. Possibly the most prolific of the original Mad artists, Wally Wood not only worked with Harvey Kurtzman on Mad and the other Kurtzman satire magazines that would follow, he was a featured artist in dozens [...]

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Mad Men of Comics

Harvey Kurtzman knew funny. As a cartoonist he keenly deployed slapstick, parody and satire in ways that were not only hilarious, but groundbreaking as well. In addition, he was a gifted ringleader, someone who could harness the best talent from the grindhouse that was the comics industry at the time. With fellow artists, Will Elder, Jack Davis, Al Jaffe, Wally [...]

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Jack Davis in the First Issue of Mad Magazine

It’s genuinely a hard task to pick my favorite cartoonist out of the original Mad Magazine crew. I admire Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Elder, Wally Wood and Jack Davis all greatly, and for different reasons. They were amazing draftsmen and funny as all get out. But I think Jack Davis would win out in the inking category. [...]

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Harvey Kurtzman’s Mad, Mad, Mad World

The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics (Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle, Abrams ComicArts, $40)  In his introduction to this groundbreaking book, comedian/writer Harry Shearer declares: “Without Harvey Kurtzman, there would have been no Saturday Night Live. What a horrible thing to say about him, but it’s true. . . . OK, this [...]

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Harvey Kurtzman’s “Help” Covers

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The Genius of Harvey Kurtzman

   Harvey Kurtzman was not only the founder and editor of Mad magazine (as well as Help!, Humbug and Trump), a master of American satire, but he was also an amazing cartoonist in his own right. He had great instinct for composition and layout (he always did the layouts for his artists). A newly launched site, The [...]

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