10 People Who Changed The Comic Book Industry Forever
2. Harvey Kurtzman
When scholars look back on the twentieth century, Mad Magazine will prove to be an incredible resource. Not just because it was frequently hilarious, or biting, but because it was never not on the pulse of the zeitgeist when Harvey Kurtzman was around.
Mad's editor from 1952-56, Kurtzman was a pioneer of the medium's Golden Age, his war books in particular setting the bar for later stories that would also divest from glorified narratives. They were dark, haunting and everything that a good war book should be, with stories intended not to propagandise for the military, but to reiterate the reality of conflict in a genre once unwilling to confront it.
Mad's genius lay entirely with Kurtzman's unflinching determination to lampoon, satirise and parody a plethora of different topics, including superheroes themselves. Like Schulz, he also helped lay the groundwork for dozens of subsequent artists, with Kurtzman's style having inspired as much as it has entertained throughout the century.
Like Eisner, the prestigious Harvey Awards are named in the artist's honour. With a fifty year career to boast, few industry figures are as revered - or as influential - as Harvey Kurtzman.