Book Review. HUMBUG Comicbook Habound Edited by Gary Groth

 

Carved in stone I think:  Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, ?, & Jack Davis.  The carver I think:  Al Jaffee

Two or three years ago I bought the two hard bound set THE COMPLETE HUMBUG MAGAZINES, all 121 issues in two volumes with a nice sleeve. 

HUMBUG Magazine was the master mind of editor Harvy Kurtzman, who created MAD Comicbook and MAD Magazine.  And also TRUMP Magazine, and HELP Magazines.  I could to on but you get the idea.  Harvey was the finding force of satirical magazines in America.

When I received the hardbound HUMBUGs, I flipped through it, which took about 2 or 3 minutes, put it on a book shelf where it sat 2 or 3 years.  Why should I read it? I read each issue over and over when hey first came out.  I knew each story by heart.

Then yesterday I opened the first volume looking for something to copy a picture of for my blog and realized it was much more than a collection of the 12 old HUMBUG Magazines.  There are pages and pages of a running   discussions of a  analytical candidly   informal type discussion between two of HUMVUG’s artists Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth.  I started reading and they tell a lot of behind scenes of the creating in the comic world.

It is great!  All I can say is WOW!  And I had them right under my nose for years… It goes page after page, I can hardly put it down.  I don't know if it flows into Volume 2 yet or not..