Mad Strikes Back

Before creating and writing the all-time greatest satirical comic, Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993) had already been the only humor cartoonist given full editorial freedom by Stan Lee and created and wrote the first serious war comics in an age of heroic jingoism. After revamping MAD from a comic into the all-time greatest satirical magazine, he went on to create and write the most widely read adult comic strip (with "Little Annie Fanny" in Playboy) and write and draw one of the earliest graphic novels (with the 1959 The Jungle Book). He continued to work in magazine and book publishing his whole life, with an eye for talent that gave leading cartoonists of the 1960s undergrounds and the 1980s alternative comics movement their earliest opportunities. Since 1988, one of the two major awards programs in American comics has been given annually in his name.