Terry Gilliam's essay about his mentor, MAD creator Harvey Kurtzman

In a previous post, we discussed director Terry Gilliam's early days as assistant editor at Help Magazine, working for his idol, Harvey Kurtzman. Kurtzman was a fantastic cartoonist who created Mad Magazine, but never really got the fame or riches he deserved.

Kurtzman was a close friend and mentor to both Gilliam and legendary underground comix artist R. Crumb, who also got his start at Help. While Crumb has had plenty to say about Kurtzman over the years, as far as I know Gilliam hasn't discussed his time with Kurtzman much. But now Gilliam has written an essay about Kurtzman for The London Telegraph. He looks at Kurtzman with affection but also with frankness, describing how their relationship evolved over the years.

Both Gilliam and Crumb seem to see Kurtzman as a phenomenal artist who spent so long chasing mainstream success (and struggling to make a living) that he never had a chance to reach his full potential. It's interesting that both Gilliam and Crumb have little positive to say about Little Annie Fanny the Playboy Magazine comic strip that took up the last few decades of Kurtzman's life. Kurtzman thought of Playboy as a prestigious, glamorous gig, while Crumb and Gilliam apparently saw it as a tragic waste of a great talent.

Gilliam writes of Kurtzman being baffled by the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and it's hardly surprising. Kurtzman never seemed to truly understand the generation of weird, confrontational artists he'd inspired. He spent his life thinking up goofy jokes and hustling to make a buck, and somehow, apparently without even really trying, he ended up revolutionizing comedy.


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