Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic books of all time, and was voted into the 'Top 100 Comics of the 20th Century' by The Comics Journal. Written and illustrated by Kurtzman in 1959, Jungle Book takes a satirical swipe at the cultural monoliths of the day: detective shows, Western movies and the publishing industry in general. Equally unafraid to take on social issues, Kurtzman also satirises the lynch-hungry mobs still prevalent in the South, and the nascent rise of the Freudian movement within popular culture.
TRUMP was a lavish color satire magazine Harvey Kurtzman created for Hugh Hefner after leaving MAD magazine acrimoniously in 1956. With a star-studded cast (Mel Brooks, Will Elder, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Al Jaffee) and Playboy's money and clout, TRUMP should have been huge. But for complex financial reasons, Hefner pulled the plug while the third issue was in production. For six long decades, the legendary TRUMP has never been collected . . . until now. With never-before-seen art, including the surviving contents of ithe third issue, this long overdue collection will blow the minds of fans of Kurtzman, satire, and 1950s American pop culture.
"From Dark Horse Comics. Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book -- ranked #26 on The Comic Journal's "Top 100 Comics" list -- is a "lost" masterpiece. Crumb, Shelton, Spiegelman, and Gilliam, among others, were inspired and influenced by Kurtzman's masterwork. Back in print after twenty-five years, this deluxe hardcover includes an essay by Denis Kitchen and foreword by R. Crumb! This numbered edition is limited to 175 copies and features a tipped-in, signature on a cancelled check by creator Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993)" -- Forbidden Planet website.
EC reprint series kicks off with war-story masterpieces from the legendary Harvey Kurtzman. The creation of MAD would have been enough to cement Harvey Kurtzman’s reputation as one of the titans of American comics, but Kurtzman also created two other comics landmarks: the scrupulously-researched and superbly-crafted war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. Here were finally war comics without heroic, cigar-chomping sergeants, wisecracking privates from Brooklyn, or cartoon Nazis and “Japs” to be mowed down by the Yank heroes, but an unflinching look at the horror and madness of combat throughout history.
You know MAD. Do you know Humbug? Harvey Kurtzman changed the face of American humor when he created the legendary MAD comic. As editor and chief writer from its inception in 1952, through its transformation into a slick magazine, and until he left MAD in 1956, he influenced an entire generation of cartoonists, comedians, and filmmakers. In 1962, he co-created the long-running Little Annie Fanny with his long-time artistic partner Will Elder forPlayboy, which he continued to produce until his virtual retirement in 1988. Between MAD and Annie Fanny, Kurtzman’s biographical summaries will note that he created and edited three other magazines―Trump, Humbug, and Help!―but, whereas his MAD and Annie Fanny are readily available in reprint form, his major satirical work in the interim period is virtually unknown. Humbug, which had poor distribution, may be the least known, but to those who treasure the rare original copies, it equals or even exceeds MAD in displaying Kurtzman’s creative genius. Humbug was unique in that it was actually published by the artists who created it: Kurtzman and his cohorts from MAD, Will Elder, Jack Davis, and Al Jaffee, were joined by universally acclaimed cartoonist Arnold Roth. With no publisher above them to rein them in, this little band of creators produced some of the most trenchant and engaging satire of American culture ever to appear on American newsstands.
