Trying a different style of post (the dreaded 'link' post!), and decided to try it with someone I was planning on studying anyway: Harvey Kurtzman(1924-1993).Read Yourself RAW Profile.
Kurtzman slideshow!
About halfway down the page, Steven Grant tells us about the best single American comic book page ever by Kurtzman and Will Elder.
A couple of discussions by John Kricfalusi on Kurtzman's compositional style.
Kurtzman's "Silver Linings".
Some advice from Kurtzman that...well, I don't know is all that good.
An audio interview with Kurtzman.
Mark Evanier on Kurtzman and MAD.
Some Kurtzman comics from ASIFA.
Tom Spurgeon interviewing Gary Groth and Greg Sadowski on THE COMIC JOURNAL LIBRARY: HARVEY KURTZMAN book. Groth pretty well nails the appeal and importance of Kurtzman in his closing remarks in that interview:
GROTH: Kurtzman's legacy may have trickled down as far as it can at this point; no one reading his Mad-edited issues now can be as affected by it as artists like R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton were when they read it as kids in the '50s. His cultural legacy may give way to his aesthetic legacy, that is, what may affect young artists now is his cartooning, by which I mean specifically the absolute, unerring beauty of his line and the expressiveness of his drawing.
Like most of the truly great artists who started out and worked in mainstream comics -- Kirby is the perfect example -- Kurtzman was never "pure" in the sense that his writing and drawing came together satisfactorily. As he said himself, he was not as good a writer as he was an artist and in the best cartoonists these two skills are roughly equal and virtually indistinguishable -- the reader can't quite tell where one stops and the other begins. Kurtzman probably came closest to this ideal in The Jungle Book -- and, of course, he had what may be the most perfect collaborator in the history of comics with Will Elder -- but I think his legacy will ultimately reside in his drawing.
Like most of the truly great artists who started out and worked in mainstream comics -- Kirby is the perfect example -- Kurtzman was never "pure" in the sense that his writing and drawing came together satisfactorily. As he said himself, he was not as good a writer as he was an artist and in the best cartoonists these two skills are roughly equal and virtually indistinguishable -- the reader can't quite tell where one stops and the other begins. Kurtzman probably came closest to this ideal in The Jungle Book -- and, of course, he had what may be the most perfect collaborator in the history of comics with Will Elder -- but I think his legacy will ultimately reside in his drawing.
Loosely related to that is something Jeff Lester wrote the other day on Savage Critic in the '50 Things I Like About Comics' meme list:
"The first time I read this (EIGHTBALL), I realized how people could talk about how reading Mad back in the '50s could completely change the way they saw everything."
I really couldn't agree more. Of course Lester a little further down hails SAM & MAX as "one of my picks for all-time funniest comic book." You really couldn't get much further from the truth, in my opinion.
-Jarrett
1 comment:
As a matter of fact, Sam & Max are not that funny. The comics are rather lame. This isn't opinion, it's cold, hard truth.
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