Some of Harvey Kurtzman's greatest comic book work were his Pot-Shot Pete stories, which he created just prior to starting MAD for EC Comics. The Asifa-Hollywood Animation Archive has just posted some really amazing scans from the color original comic books, courtesy of the amazing collection belonging to Kent Butterworth. There's also a couple of Kurtzman's Pig Tales comics from the 1940's...about twenty pages of classic cartooning in all! You can find all the comic book scans at: http://www.animationarchive.org/2009/06/comics-kurtzmans-comic-books.html
Also… BIG NEWS for Harvey Kurtzman fans! The long-awaited illustrated biography of Harvey Kurtzman is finally in bookstores!
| | What a treasure! I first got turned on to Kurtzman around 1986, when "Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book" was reprinted. When his "Hey Look" collection (of pre-MAD one-page gag comics) came out, it instantly became my favorite book in the world, and my constant cartooning inspiration. It has never left the number one spot on my "Greatest Books Ever" list. |
Want to look through the Art of Harvey Kurtzman book before you run out and buy it? I just made a video showing my clumsy hands pawing through the whole thing! Take a look at all the rare art and wonderful cartoony delights in the video below...
Once the video starts to play, press the little HQ button
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For more info and reviews check here:
The Art of Harvey Kurtzman
to see it in the best resolution!
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For more info and reviews check here:
The Art of Harvey Kurtzman
12 comments:
Excellent preview. Thanks! Still seems like a lot of stuff I already have, plus his collaborations. I'll buy it anyway. Glossy paper, oooh! I wish Kurtzman had worked on his own more - but who doesn't wish that?
Nice to see the Christmas Carol work. I didn't notice his Dracula strips or the Madison Avenue Magazine advertising comics. Are they also in the book? Those are impossible to find in print.
PS - I saw where you creased that one page as you flipped through (2:20). DAMN!!! That made me cringe. I hate when that happens. Thank you for your sacrifice. =)
Hi Chris...There is one Dracula comic in there (near the back) but I don't recall seeing any of the Madison Avenue comics.
re: "I wish Kurtzman had worked on his own more..." Of course I agree, but there are a LOT of his own ROUGH sketches and thumbnails that I have never seen before! Even thumbnails for Superduperman!
I'll have to check again, but I should mention that I certainly skipped a LOT of pages in my quick flip-through of the book.
Ouch! You caught that page crease, huh? Oh, well...I'm not as finicky about thinks like that as I used to be. It didn't hurt any images. Your note made me laugh out loud, so I got something out of it!
Sherm, here's a link to Ger Apeldorn's Fabulous Fifties blog that has the Madison Avenue comics, about midway down, as well as the Silver Linings strips and much more. These are all things that, if not already, should have been included in the book.
I'll reserve further opinion until I actually get the thing in my mitts.
PS - Just as a note, the word Verification for this comment happened to be "retart". Is blogger telling me something?
Thanks for that link -- I remember bookmarking that a long time ago, but a bookmark isn't always helpful if you have 30,000 of them.
I hope everybody will follow that link to find those great rare HK comics!
A furschlugginer great movie, but the book's even better! I've already developed carpal tunnel from lugging it around, and flipping through it's pages. It's a great year to be a Kurtzman fan – first Humbug, now this book, and The Complete Trump is less than a year away!
You can bet I'm getting that!
Hey Shawn...I hope a lotta people buy this book...we gotta show the publishers that there's a market for books like this! Maybe they'll reprint the whole Kurtzman catalog one day...
@ FrankenBarry -- touche! As usual, your insights are full of Potrzebie!
sherm,
Thanks for spreading the valuable info. love the archive and love your blog man, keep it up!
you guys are a wealth of great information and inspiration.
Love the pot-shot pete's!
This kurtzman book looks great, too!
I'mma try to get my hands on this book in a few weeks, hopefully while amazon still has such a great deal on it.
I'm embarrassed to admit I don't know as much about Kurtzman as I should (my age?). I've seen some of his work from Mad, but my primary exposure has been through John K's blog via ComiCrazys. Looks like a great book—maybe a good introduction of sorts?
Hey Bob...this book actually is a GREAT intro to Kurtzman's work...so much so that it's sometimes redundant to long-time collectors and fans. His greatest art and stories are reprinted herein, and lots of biographical and historical info to put it all in context.
I can also promise you (tht's YOU, Bob Flynn, not the generic "You.") that if you can afford to buy a used copy of Hey Look on Amazon, you will realize that it's worth at least ten times the already-inflated price (It goes for around $75). Hey Look is a collection of his pre-MAD one-pagers, and it is the single-greatest collection of cartooning between two covers.If you don't think so, I'll personally buy it back from you! I'm 100% serious.
I can easily say that I owe most of my career in cartooning to the inspiration I received from countless hours bent over the pages of Hey Look and HK's great EC comics work.
Damn that would have made a great Father's Day gift. I'll just have to get it for myself.
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