The Process of Harvey Kurtzman

It's great to see how much of the detritus of 20th century pop culture has been retrieved from the ash bin of history and polished up and presented to a new generation for more serious study and appreciation. There was no more disposable commodity than the comic book, printed cheaply and usually literally "torn" through by young avid readers. 

One of the pleasures of the new book about The Art of Harvey Kurtzman, or many of the other monographs out now on comic book and illustration artists, is the chance to peek at the process behind the work, and to meet the personalities and hear the stories, some humorous, some banal, of those present at the creation.

Here is a sketch layout of one of Harvey Kurtzman's early war comics reproduced in "The Art of Harvey Kurtzman", and the finished and inked page below.

After working as a freelance artist and making a breakthrough into comic strips in the New York Daily Herald newspaper after World War 2, Kurtzman joined William Gaines' legendary EC Comics in the early 1950's, and thus began the period of his most acclaimed work and his greatest innovation.

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Tomorrow: More about the Mad Man!

Comments

[dutchbaby]

I always enjoy seeing a glimpse of the creative process. I'm so glad these artists are being immortalized in the form of a more durable book.

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While the ever-popular Marvels was more of a survey of Marvel's history from an onlooker's perspective,The Marvels Project will offer an insider's look on how the whole super-hero phenomena came about in the Marvel Universe. I'm sure it will be reprinted in trades, but I'm too excited to wait.