Article About Mad Magazine

[Zero]

Harvey Kurtzman was one of my teachers at the School of Visual Arts. I wish I had known the vital, vibrant version I’d read about that existed during the EC years—by the time I met and studied with him in the ’80s, he had slowed considerably due to Parkinson’s. I’m happy and proud that I got to study under such a legend and giant in comics, but he wasn’t a particularly good teacher when I had him. I learned more about comics and storytelling by studying Harvey’s work under the guidance of Art Spiegelman than I did from Harvey himself (I would say the same of another teacher/legend, Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit). Harvey was a hero of sorts to me (I grew up reading the Ballantine MAD paperbacks that my older brothers had) and it was incredibly painful when he took me aside at the end of the semester and said, “You were my greatest disappointment.” It saddens me to this day that I didn’t live up to his expectations with my work—it felt good that he thought highly of what I might be capable of and expected great things, but bad that I didn’t deliver. By the time I had achieved high spots in my career that I could show Harvey, he was a bit too far gone to recall who I was.

If I can locate the box it’s packed away in, I’ll try to post a picture or two of my copy of Maria Reidelbach’s Completely MAD: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine, signed by William Gaines, Harvey, and a good number of the Usual Gang of Idiots.

-“You were my greatest disappointment.”- Don't ever let that get you down, because just like you...there can only be one Savinelli.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I spent my paper route money on Field and Steam, Sports Afield and Outdoor Life subscriptions and books early 70s, lol, and when HS came was so busy with all sorts of things that anything related to magazines mostly went by the wayside so never got into MAD so I missed out on the heyday. Working my way through all the Louis L’Amour novels, assorted historical biographies and various mystery/spy/PI fiction gave me plenty of fun stuff to read.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I think you meant heroin

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Not heroine

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And, I agree on John Belushi. Now Jim Belushi, there's a guy who can make me laugh.

Thank you, I don't use those words very often, so I wasn't aware there were differences.