The Man Who Made MAD: Harvey Kurtzman

[@Hellismary]

Spy vs Spy was awesome 👏🏾, my favorite segment of MAD

[@trashfire9641]

Agreed.

[@doctorhandsome]

An episode about Prohias would be great.

[@jalderink]

When I was in fourth grade, my buddy James got caught with a Mad magazine in class. The teacher flipped out. He called it trash, tore it up and threw it away. We were shocked and I'll never forget how devastated James was. I will never understand why some people do things like that and it makes me sad that Mad Magazine is shutting down. My buddies and I, really enjoyed it and Spy vs. Spy was our jam. It was always the first thing we went to. Thank you for your great tribute to this American classic!

[@doctorhandsome]

Man, I really thought that Pageant magazine cover was a parody from the pages of Mad. "NINE HOURS IN HELL WITH A DOPE ADDICT!" "A Special Report on THE FETISH OF THE BOSOM!" lol

[@mr.pavone9719]

My best friend from K-5th grade had a drawer FULL of Mad magazines. I learned so much about movies that I couldn't see as a kid (like Clockwork Orange) that I had a working knowledge of what they were about. I read every single page of every issue. The same goes for his collection of Peanuts paperbacks.

[@HunterLyonIsAPerson]

Mad magazine was the first place I became aware of David Bowie. The joke was "David Bowtie."

[@kingflame81]

@@kevcatnip7589 No, FUCK you you racist.

[@jockmctodger]

@@kingflame81 Eh?

[@skRapKlan]

What an amazing magazine! I used to read it all the time as a kid, picking out random numbers from my older cousins and uncles collections! Alot of the humor went over my head at the time, but I remember loving Spy vs Spy. And when I got a little older - going back and reading the magazines I remembered really cracked me up! Thanks for the awesome trip down memory lane! Great video!

[@heytigerfists]

One of the best comic channels on KZbin. Thanks for the investment of your time. Greatly appreciated.

[@SuperstarDJSupreme]

I think he might be the best He covers the best topics.

[@glitchygear9453]

@@SuperstarDJSupreme hes also the literal only one that: A. Avoids political topics B. Discusses all comics and all types of comics, including obscure ones and foreign icons C. Doesn't make every video about manga, superheroes, or edgy punchy men All three are appreciated

[@MarkLipka]

"One of"?? With all due respect, what else is even close?

[@AL-ws5yi]

It's actually sad that something as iconic as MAD Magazine is folding. I guess nothing is forever but it's still sad. RIP.

[@tomripsin730]

7:54 The strip was called Bringing Up Father. Father Knows Best was a 1950's sit com with Robert Young.

[@oluhamilton2121]

Wood, Drucker, Martin, Rickard, Mingo, Prohias, Freas, Clarke, Woodbridge, Davis, Torres...I idolized these guys. Satirical humor at it's best.

[@Rometiklan]

Some of my fondest reading experiences from childhood was MAD magazine. My neighbour`s son gave me an entire stack when he moved out to college. Loved Jack Daivis and Mort Drucker, and of course Sergio and Spy vs Spy...the list goes on. Haven`t read an issue in a long while but there was always something comforting about seeing an issue sitting on the magazine rack in the store. Thanks for posting, Chris.

[@kevcatnip7589]

myfaves were jaws and rollerball ,,,,classic mag ,,,bye or maybe not ,,,regards

[@StonemonkeyTube]

In 6th grade a classmate just stuffed a Mad Magazine in my backpack and said "quick take this" or something like that, as if it was some illicit item. That's how I got introduced to Mad. I wasn't really friends with him so I don't know why he let me borrow it but I'm glad he decided to do that.

[@ComicsLegend]

Mad magazine is alive and well. It will no longer be in newsstands but still available at comic shops and bookstores and through subscriptions. It will contain reprinted material and some new material. Issue 12 will be released early February.

[@danthaman03]

Harvey Kurtzman as well as quite a few other Mad artists were brilliant. And this is a great video.

[@yatz57]

I love the older Mad stuff - like the Don Martin wackyness and the Mort Drucker film & TV parodies. But: the Kurtzman years are pure genius; I have the full-color hardcovers for those, with the amazing art by Elder, Wood and Davis, and go back to it often. I also think the Little Annie Fanny work is great (well, at least the 60's stuff), with pretty on-point social and political satire, and breath-taking artwork by Elder and a whole gaggle of contributing artists assisting him. Would heartily recommend the first collection.

[@sparkleypegs8350]

Love those first 23 issues of MAD. Awesome artwork, great commentary on the times too.

[@Spellfork]

I remember reading Mad Magazine in the 80's and 90's here in Sweden where it was translated into Swedish. In the 80's I was but a wee little kid so much of the humor went completely over my head but I loved the back cover fold art as well as the shorter strips like Spy vs Spy. It also introduced me to Groo and other stuff by Aragonés. I'm sure it has been translated and published in a lot of countries outside of the US, so it had great reach and cultural significance in many places all over the world.

[@jamesschulziii9098]

Oh Hi, you caught me watching another episode of comic tropes. Chris!!! Hellooo... I enjoy Davis's work in mad however, I recommend the covers and interiors of tales from the crypt which was pretty much his baby much like Ghastly worked on haunt of fear and Craig with vault of horror. Man his covers for that book were so interesting to me. A particular Crypt cover that sticks with me is ,I think it's 31 . Love that cover thank you kindly chris for having such a fun an informative channel. Be well sir and keep up the good work.

[@Captain1nsaneo]

When I was a kid our barber shop had a massive stack of MAD magazines. A lot of the older examples you showed like superduperer man I remember reading thanks to that pile.

[@UrMomsChauffer]

I recently read an issue from the ‘70s. Still relevant and topical. Great video

[@xouat]

Harvey Kurtzman was a giant in the field. Thanks for this

[@Jamaicafunk]

Harvey taught at SVA in NYC as well...As well as Will Eisner. Proud to say I was a student of them both. Class of '82! !

[@DWNicolo]

Glad to see you're tackling this topic.

[@vollsticks]

Oh I CANNOT WAIT TO DIG INTO THIS ONE! Kurtzman was a creative genius and his voice is still felt from the creators of huge corporate comics (like the DC Flintstones "reboot", for instance) down to the tiniest self-published mini-comic cartoonist...I have the great Denis Kitchen monograph, that old book he did with Byron Priess with modern (well, early nineties) cartoonists working from his layouts, it has Crumb, Aragones, Dave Gibbons, as well as that wonderful little Art Spiegleman comic retelling the time he did a slideshow presentation of Kurtzman's work to the latter's School Of Visual Arts class...Harvey Kurtzman's Strange Tales, just remembered the name, gorgeous William Stout Silver Surfer parody cover...anyway, will update when I've watched, cheers!

[@fad23]

Having studied a lot about comedy in the 20th century, I can say that Kurtzman's Mad was an inspiration for so much of the comedy to come. The influence of this comic cannot be understated.

[@ChapMeifan]

Amazing and insightful. I didn't know a lot about Harvey Kurtzman although I've been seeing his art my whole life. Love your channel and enjoy all of the segments. Great work.

[@alanfoxman5291]

So sad. I grew up with Mad. So many great artists.

[@FadeIn2Obscurity]

Not a fan of satire comics like Mad, but as usual, your video was very informative and interesting. While I’ll never go out of my way for the magazine, I can still say I learned something today from watching you.

[@zakazany1945]

Yeah, I was never interest in Mad Magazine, but I am going to watch the video anyway because the quality of the channel is really good

[@snarkus63]

When MAD began including reprints of their 1950's comic in their 1970s "Super Specials",I remember Harvey Kurtzman being the subject of several articles about the history of comics.

[@jeffreyswhitmore]

Chris, you existing as a person actually makes me happy, no homo. And you are seriously the most likable person I have ever seen on the youtubes. And you keep giving me new shit to read. Keep on keepin on.

[@sonofaredshirt8329]

So sad to see Mad Magazine go, it was required reading for me as a child. Sadly I have to admit I haven't bought an issue in maybe 20 years. So many fantastic writers and artists throughout their run. You could quite easily do a comic tropes video on almost any one of the writers for artists that were in there over the years! I might very well be incorrect but I think Sergio Aragones had the most popular comic book-style comic outside of Mad Magazine with his classic and hilarious Conan the Barbarian knock off Groo the Wanderer! That one alone was a longtime favorite of mine and I bought the entire initial run. Quality content as always thanks for posting! Cheers.

[@jayemcbride6772]

I remember reading my older brother's and always looking for those mini cartoons in the margins by sergio aragones. Thanks for this one, great episode (and i just joined as a citizen on patreon :)

[@OhBoy404]

Im shocked that comic tropes isnt 1 million subs

[@lunarmodule6419]

MAD was a monument. Super interesting. I just love your vids on the life of great artists. The artistic exploration and evolution, the business side of it all, etc. Its just great to learn about. Thank you.

[@flipflopmcgurt3403]

Such a great site. Love your stuff. Amazingly Funny and informative

[@DarthPerkins]

I'm English, so a lot Mad humour is VERY Americana based and goes straight over my head, but I am very thankful for it as publishers realised they could use the magazine model to circumvent the Code and kick-start the second wave of horror comics. Well, horror magazines.

[@futuramayeah]

i liked the movie parodies in both Mad and Cracked, with artwork that looked like it was shots from the movie but with captions that were all jokes that made you laugh your ass off

[@aaronjm94]

Love your videos, Chris. Thanks for the work you put into them.

[@billyjacobs190]

great video great research at a lot of fun watch ahead

[@liberispuritatem]

Liked the new edits at the corner of the screen like 15:00. Nice way to add details to your work.

[@Rob_Gibson]

Great episode!

[@christophervaldez8746]

Check out the MAD TV Special from 1974.

[@madtendo6482]

my mum got me a subscription to MAD last year and i got issues 19 - 24 of the reboot, it was a blast!

[@dyladino]

You're truly under appreciated chris, keep up the grind love you brother

[@stupendoushorrendous8258]

I learned to read on Mad. RIP to a great magazine.

[@scottfree2248]

The early Mad magazine comics were beautifully illustrated and hilarious. One of my all-time favourite parodies is their adaptation of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe! I always smile whenever I hear or read The Raven because I visualize the brilliantly funny way Mad Magazine portrayed this dark poem

[@TheJMuise87]

Another great video. That opening was definitely hilarious... Was never really into Mad magazine, but the history behind their publication and the creation of the comics code was always very interesting to me. Wonder how much different comics would have been if the code had not been created?

[@spider_dude]

Omg that intro. I live for your intros man.

[@robbijohnson6983]

Some of the best artists and writers ever

[@marqosmarqos1201]

Another classic video thanks.

[@rebelleaf]

Loving all your content, man!

[@lordlycius]

I'll always remember 'MAD MAG' ~ 'CRACKED' & 'SPY vs SPY' I may have came in as a GEN-X But My father had a HUGE collection of MAD MAGS, he always thought it was funny that even as a Young Adolescent who found and raided his old collection in his Footlocker & Storage boxes, that 'SPY vs SPY' was my favorite strip of them all, in all of what he had in there... lol!!!

[@Taipan108]

Excellent video. Mad Magazine was certainly very popular with me and my childhood friends. And much like my childhood, it will be sadly missed. Also, did Al Jaffee actually invent the fold-in? Because that’s genius!

[@johngeverett]

Jack Davis was one of my favorites. I've seen his work outside of Mad.

[@ES_Glenn]

Awesome new editing!

[@Larry]

Loved MAD as a kid, but it was an utter nightmare to find copies over here in the UK, so ended up moving over to Viz instead (the British equivalent). I just hope they don't end up like Cracked did. a shitty clickbait site that literally steals my content

[@principalitycidade4323]

Mad legacy is stronger than Cracked

[@biffwellington1782]

I started collecting old Mad's recently and found a Super Special from The "Autumn" of 1988 (Gross Outs) with a price listed in pounds. In NA they're labelled "Fall" of whatever year. Was a pleasant surprise as I had no idea they were exported across the pond.

[@rexmarduk4862]

Haha you have the best intro. Love this channel

[@Kable_TV]

rex marduk we don’t talk about the litter box intro

[@Kikilang60]

Thanks, always cool.

[@automatwinslaytracks]

What a bummer. Mad made middle school that much more special.

[@SkunkNinja127]

When I was a kid you were in one of two camps. The Mad magazine camp or the Cracked magazine camp. Everyone knows that Mad was the best.

[@OhBoy404]

Love your effort

[@mcurran6505]

"Excuse me, is this Mad Magazine?" "No, it's Mademoiselle. We're buying our sign on the installment plan."

[@favoritemustard3542]

"Excuse me, is there a room for rent?" ~woman hanging a TO LET sign~ "No, I just don't know how to spell TOILET." "Well, when you get it right, hang it on yer mouth!"

[@prajwaljayaraj5887]

Wait 'Little Annie Fanny' was created by the same guy who created 'MAD'?! Whoa.

[@modifiedprogramjam4830]

Thx. I learned alot!

[@AshleenWoods]

You mention R. Crum...that'd be an interesting character to do a video on (dude's a hot mess, but I love his art.)

[@abdul-rahman7606]

Love your shirt!

[@t.c.bramblett617]

Kurtzman's war comics are brilliant.

[@unstoppableExodia]

I loved reading Mad magazine in the nineties. In fact for me the nineties was a golden age of discovery of parody/satire media. During that decade I laughed at sketch comedy shows from the country emigrated to such as fast forward, full frontal and the late show and sketch shows from other English speaking countries such as the fast show from England and Mad tv from USA. There was so much gold during that era. In print media Mad magazine was the shining light as we didn't get Cracked over here. The only reason I know about cracked is because it got mentioned on the Simpsons once.

[@athenassigil5820]

MAD was so iconic, I grew up with it and Spy vs Spy was my go to, the ingenuity was sadistic fun.

[@Mythocentric]

I can't blame MAD for folding. When you realize that society in modern America is crazier than the magazine, what have you left?

[@cessnaace]

DC Comics is releasing Mad Magazine #12 December 18, 2019. I believe it's an annual.

[@walterluffman9718]

Chris, how about a Comic Tropes episode on MAD's maddest writer, Dick di Bartolo? You might even be able to interview him, since he's still around and active.

[@IconGamesBR]

Extremely sad to see MAD go. It definitively has its place in comic history.

[@glitchygear9453]

I just want to thank you for being the only comic channel I'm aware of that doesn't focus primarily on manga, superheroes, or edgy punchy men. Your videos on comics like Mad and Cerebus, from countries like Argentina and France, and from creators like Junji Ito are what drew me to your channel in the first place. I also want to thank you for staying away from the current political war in comics. Both the side I agree with and the one I don't are making total fools of themselves right now, and I'm glad you're not buying into the spiteful attitudes. You keep doing you.

[@joshuadamron5750]

Loving the show!! keep it up!

[@brucebaldy]

Great artwork! Where has it gone?

[@56postoffice]

😲opening segment freaked me out😲!! Sad to see the mag go. Last time I bought it would have been around 1987, where it parodied *"Aliens."*

[@prajwaljayaraj5887]

Keep up the good work CHris!!

[@tamlynburleigh9267]

I loved reading it in the nineteen sixties and seventies, but it gradually seemed to become dirtier, until I eventually and rather sadly, gave up on it. I still have some of the earliest issues. Still very funny.

[@captainhowdy2782]

Very interesting. I loved MAD. It will be missed. Have you Troped Steve Gerber yet? I've always enjoyed his work. I'd love to learn about him. Peace!

[@rojaws1183]

Oh well, they had a longer run than most publications.

[@jaredgarcia8638]

Well, they can always start a second volume

[@chalkboy8]

What me worry!

[@matthewronsson]

Many will not know the extent that MAD was an integral, cultural icon was during its prime. Much like LIFE had been before. Then there was the unique depth and thoughtfulness of the old Peanuts strip. Then there were awesome magazines like Eerie (basically the old E.C. Horror comic in magazine format), Heavy Metal and National Lampoon that coincided with Mad's peak period. Mad's span of influence was the Golden era in print media across the board. It was the country's court jester, pointing out the absurdities of modern life, mocking pop culture and politicians while not sparing itself, with plenty of slapstick gags and routines thrown in the mix. It seems social media has finally dismissed this outlet. It's sad to see them go, even if they outlasted essentially all of their Golden Era peers, some of which didn't have the Internet to contend with.

[@kristophersmotherman6114]

my first issue, we were on vacation in Daytona Beach. I was 8 years old, and it was the Scarface issue. I frigg! "dad, what does frig mean?"

[@chibiNATHA]

The audio of the narration is kinda low compared to the audio where Chris is in front of the camera, or it is just me? Anyway, great episode as always! I don't live in the US so I never got the chance to read a MAD Magazine but it sounds like the kind stuff I would totally love.

[@DrPluton]

Growing up, we didn't buy comic books regularly. It was always a treat to pick up a copy of Mad or Cracked and have some good laughs. I found some of the art in their movie parodies to be detailed to the point of the grotesque (kind of like Ren & Stimpy), but the humor was great, and the little doodles on the borders of pages and short comics like Spy Vs Spy were a huge part of the charm of these magazines.

[@theramblinmahoney2316]

Now that, was a solid cold open.

[@LARKXHIN]

Gosh, I had a subscription to MAD for years as a kid. I'll miss it.

[@lsgreger2645]

Did anyone ever play the Mad Magazine board games in the 80s? I remember it being a reverse Monopoly and pokes fun at board games. The art on the board was interesting from what I remember?

[@dylanmahaffey8920]

I had this! Completely forgot about it, played it with my father all the time. For those who dont know, it was all about losing all your money.

[@ScipioAfricanusI]

I would have really liked it if you could contrast Mad and Cracked magazines.

[@adamandava6emeryandemery18]

Love MAD. I inherited 4 boxes of my dads old comics and mags. They where full of old TftC, National Lampoon, and my favorite Mad mags from the 60’s and 70’s. On a side note, will you ever do an episode on the Tick?

[@doctorhandsome]

He covered The Tick: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJWpZZhnlMmkmNE

[@timmneeley4301]

Wow someone wasn't fan of Mad TV. I'm surprised, it gave us a lot of great comedians like Key and Peele and Frank Caliendo and the Madden Popcorn Popper is still great.

[@yatz57]

I didn't care much for later seasons, but the first couple had some solid writing and pretty good actors, like Phil LaMarr, Debra Wilson, Orlando Jones, Nicole Sullivan, David Herman - even Artie Lange (when he could drag himself out of bed) had his best years. Hell, you have at least give them some love for having the most racially diverse cast, ever!

[@jalderink]

I loved Mad TV

[@cluepac]

The Original Run ended early 2018. It was relaunched with issue #1, and is currently at issue #8.

[@Cappytain101]

I remember the television show that was on cartoon Network.

[@fad23]

I feel like the new run, that started when Bill Morrison came along, before he was canned, was hearkening back strongly to the original days of the comic.

[@noonecomics]

Spy versus Spy is a big inspiration for everything I do

[@edward2962]

Gloria Steinem also worked Kurtzman doing the "Help" magazine days.

[@reidcunningham5906]

I loved the cartoon network mad show, which got me into the magazine. I have the issue in which weird al was the guest editor.

[@cookiemadison8529]

It shaped my tiny little mind!

[@MrUndersolo]

Genius of the culture! Shame what happened to the magazine this year...

[@colonelguile-957]

I love Mad magazine. I still have numerous issues that I've kept around since I was a kid. My favorite issue was the one that had a parody of the first four Planet of the Apes movies, with artwork by Mort Drucker.