Harvey Kurtzman

Legacy

Kurtzman is regularly cited, alongside the likes of Will Eisner, Jack Kirby and Carl Barks, as being one of the defining creators of the Golden Age of American comic books. Because of Mad'sinfluence on popular culture, Kurtzman was described by The New York Times as "one of the most important figures in postwar America".

Kurtzman acted as a mentor to a large number of cartoonists, such as Terry Gilliam, Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and John Holmstrom.

Help! contributor, Monty Python member Terry Gilliam, called Kurtzman "n many waysone of the godparents of Monty Python". In his 1985 film Brazil, Terry Gilliam gave Ian Holm's character the name "Kurtzmann". Underground cartoonist Robert Crumb asserted that one of Kurtzman's cover images for Humbug "changed life" and that another Mad cover image "changed the way saw the world forever!" Writing for Time, Richard Corliss touted Kurtzman's influence:

Mad was the first comic enterprise that got its effects almost entirely from parodying other kinds of popular entertainment...To say that this became an influential manner in American comedy is to understate the case. Almost all American satire today follows a formula that Harvey Kurtzman thought up.

Kurtzman, and particularly his work on Mad, is the most frequently cited influence on the underground comix movement, and was called "the granddaddy of the underground comics" by comics historian Mark Estren. In 1958, Robert Crumb and his older brother Charles self-published three issues of the Humbug-inspired fanzine Foo. The venture was not a financial success, and Crumb turned to producing comics to satisfy himself. By 1964, he had material published professionally by Kurtzman in Help!.

Some admirers felt Little Annie Fanny was "known more for its lavish production values than its humor", or that it compromised Kurtzman's genius. Many fans consider Help! to be Kurtzman's "last hurrah".

The Kirby Awards came to an end in 1987, and the Harvey Awards and Eisner Awards took its place. Named in Kurtzman's honor, the Harveys are administered by Fantagraphics Books, and nominees and winners are selected by comics professionals. Kurtzman was one of seven cartoonists featured in the traveling "Masters of American Comics" exhibition in 2005–2006.

Comics Journal publisher Gary Groth noted that Kurtzman's style "...achieves some sort of Platonic ideal of cartooning. Harvey was a master of composition, tone and visual rhythm, both within the panel and among the panels comprising the page. He was also able to convey fragments of genuine humanity through an impressionistic technique that was fluid and supple." Comics critic and historian R. C. Harvey claimed in 2000 that Kurtzman "may be the most influential American cartoonist since Walt Disney". In its list of the 20th century's best 100 comics, The Comics Journal awarded Kurtzman five of the slots: