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Sunday, April 05, 2009
The Resurrection of Humbug
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Harvey Kurtzman went from Mad to Trump to Humbug to Help!
Mad went from a comic book to a magazine. Humbug was a magazine that was downsized to comic book proportions, which was a factor in its doom. I remember searching for copies by looking behind larger publications in the magazine racks. By the time Humbug increased in size, it was too late.
Harvey Kurtzman went from Mad to Trump to Humbug to Help!
Mad went from a comic book to a magazine. Humbug was a magazine that was downsized to comic book proportions, which was a factor in its doom. I remember searching for copies by looking behind larger publications in the magazine racks. By the time Humbug increased in size, it was too late.
©2009 Fantagraphics Books
Thanks to Fantagraphics, Humbug is back in a big way. Instead of crumbling newsprint, it's now a splendiferous two-volume slipcased set with quality paper, an attractive design by Adam Grano and extensive digital restorations by Paul Baresh. In addition to story annotations by John Benson, an intro by Benson and Gary Groth, and a lengthy Benson interview with Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee, there are even four pages detailing how the Baresh restorations were accomplished (see above). When no original art or paste-ups were available, they scanned from the printed pages.
The film clip below reveals that Jack Davis drew the bottom right panel almost identical to Eli Wallach's position in that scene.
The film clip below reveals that Jack Davis drew the bottom right panel almost identical to Eli Wallach's position in that scene.
Elia Kazan won a Golden Globe for Baby Doll, and it received four other Golden Globe nominations and four Oscar nominations. The film benefited from a terrific Kenyon Hopkins score, remastered in 2003. Listen to "Lemonade"! Hopkins also did the music for The Strange One, 12 Angry Men, Wild River, The Fugitive Kind, The Hustler, Lilith and This Property Is Condemned.
Labels: fantagraphics, humbug, jack davis, jaffee, kurtzman, roth
¶ 10:22 AM 6 comments
