Sunday Religion & Comics

(remember to click on any picture to be able to read the balloons)

This is Harvey Kurtzman’s HELP! Magazine which did surprisingly well, compared to his other two tries – HUMBUG and TRUMP. This is the May 1961 issue #10.

Harvey Kurtzman was the editor but the publisher was a young man named Warren that was known for his low budget magazines with big bangs. HELP! was no exception.

Most of the material was recycled news and promo stills. And Harvey simply thought of something funny and mostly shocking to go with it, such as above.

Some great cartoonist and visual artists got their start working for HELP! such as Robert Crumb, Terry Gilliam (Monty Python), Skip Williamson, Gilbert Shelton, and more. Unfortunately, I am not in that group of names. I almost made it. I received a note from Kurtzman saying he enjoyed a couple of my cartoons and his assistant Robert Crumb would be contacting me about terms. The next card I received from HELP! said they were shutting down. Finished! Over with! Skat!




I think most if not every issue of HELP had what was called a Fumetti. If I understand it correctly, Fumetti is an Italian for a picture-story. I think they usually had as a star someone who felt they needed the publicity – in other words, someone with a name that would work cheap. In this issue it starred Henny Youngman… that fumetti might be a post in the future.

When I reread (or relooked) this issue just this past week I noticed something I haven't noticed before. A full page detailed cartoon by Harvey Kurtzman old friend that sort of faded away half-way through the MAD comicbook area, John Severin. I noticed he had been doing the covers and some stories for another lampoon mag - I think it was CRACKED. The whole page is so detailed, I hope Severin got a decent payment for that - with HELP!'s low-budget, I wonder.


Kurtzman had his loyal MAD artists Will Elder and Jack Davis to contribute. Below is a comic story illustrated by Will Elder which will give you a whiff of 1961 with such TV shows as 77 SUNSET STRIP, the Kennedy’s in the White House, and the accent on the youth look.