I’ve heard it said several places now. There is a general agreement that Harvey Kurtzman, the first editor of MAD, greatly influenced an entire generation of young comedians, artists, actors, filmmakers and writers who grew up reading his parodies and satires. The people who made SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, for instance, came of age reading MAD, and you can see the direct line in their send-ups and take-offs, deflating pompous politicians and making fun of egomaniacal “celebrities”. Kurtzman’s bent worldview touched many creative minds. I know this is true because I am one of them. Growing up in Michigan and Ohio, my brothers and I subscribed to and pored over MAD Magazine every month. Then we sought out the paperback editions and discovered MAD had started as a subversive comic book before it evolved into a magazine. It was like the underground comics of the 60s, except it was in the 50s and they sold it mainstream. Harvey Kurtzman was a genius, and there is no need (as there was for unknown or forgotten illustrators on some of my previous lists) to tell you his life story here. It has been very well documented in several books and collections. There is even THE ILLUSTRATED HARVEY KURTZMAN INDEX, a meticulous checklist of everything he created, from EC Comics to MAD to TRUMP to HUMBUG to HELP to LITTLE ANNIE FANNY and beyond. One of Kurtzman’s first genius moves was hiring three artists to start MAD. Each of them would prove to be geniuses in their own right, and this checklist is a celebration of that first group:

Will Elder

Jack Davis

Wallace Wood

In addition to illustrating Kurtzman’s stories in the first issues of MAD, these artists also created paperback book covers. We list those books here.

Not even for a second am I suggesting MAD was just about those four men. There were countless other artists and editors involved from day one, and MAD never could have appeared without the inspiration and guidance of its publisher, William M. Gaines, who was smart enough to give MAD first to Harvey Kurtzman. When Kurtzman moved on, another EC editor, Al Feldstein, stepped up and took MAD Magazine in all kinds of new successful directions with a boatload of new artists, cartoonists and cover illustrators. We loved them all: first John Severin and Basil Wolverton very early on, and then Al Jaffee, Kelly Freas, Norman Mingo, Mort Drucker, Don Martin, Dave Berg, Sergio Argonnes, Antonio Prohias, Nick Meglin and countless others.They created joy, laughter, outrage and emotion with each new issue and each new paperback collection. And none of us who memorized them were ever quite the same again.

These are the first editions of the first four MAD paperbacks, written and edited by Harvey Kurtzman.  Details in Jack Davis Covers section below.

The 5th collection is THE BROTHERS MAD, Ballantine 267, 1958.The 6th collection is THE BEDSIDE MAD, Signet S1647, 1959. Cover by Kelly Freas. The 7th collection was SON OF MAD, Signet S1701, 1960. Cover by Freas. All of the first seven were written by Harvey Kurtzman. Art by Will Elder, Jack Davis & Wallace Wood. SON OF MAD also has art by Russ Heath, Phil Interlandi & John Severin. Kurtzman and Davis have two stories each in #8, THE ORGANIZATION MAD, and #9, THE IDES OF MAD.

Kurtzman's HUMBUG DIGEST & JUNGLE BOOK are shown in the Jack Davis covers section.

 

Once asked where the humor in MAD had originated, William M. Gaines replied “Will Elder”. This is from WILL ELDER: THE MAD PLAYBOY OF ART, the essential book on Elder’s life, edited by Gary Groth and Greg Sadowski: “Once the decision was made to create a humor comic, Elder became a prime source of inspiration.  With Jack Davis, Wallace Wood, and John Severin already at his disposal, and Elder as a one man comic wrecking crew, Kurtzman was in a position to create a groundbreaking comic book – and he did. The combination of Kurtzman at the helm with a stable of great artists made MAD seem magical to early readers. … MAD could never have happened had not Gaines, Kurtzman, and Elder all combined forces at the same time.”

And magical it was.

Later, when Kurtzman left MAD he went to work for publisher Hugh Hefner on a new humor magazine called TRUMP. The timing was not right for either of them to launch an expensive new magazine, and TRUMP folded after only two issues. Those two issues are collector’s items today, and (if you ever have the opportunity to read them) are like finding lost issues of MAD or HELP!  TRUMP illustrators included Will Elder, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth. Kurtzman and Hefner remained friends, and Kurtzman & Elder would become regular PLAYBOY contributors a few years later.