Sunday Illustration Day.
Yesterday I got the new book on Harvey Kurtzman by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle. I consider myself to be in a select group of about ten people collecting everything Harvey Kurtzman ever did, but this books has stuff even I haven't got. Most of it comes directly from Kurtzman's Estate and private collections. This also results in some new information about Kurtzman's lief and career, which should help me unearth even more rarities. I completely recommend the book, which is nicely presented and has a great overview of Kurtzman's career, often using rare sketches and other material to illustrate the better known parts. I know Denis is working on some addition books and if they will turn out as good as this one, I will certainly be getting those as well. Just as I can recommend the Humbug collection by Fantagraphics, the upcoming Help collection or any of John Benson's recent issues of Squa Tront, which give you even more to gawk at. I'd recommend the upcoming Trump collection as wel if someone could assure me it would include the unpublished third issue. Until that I, I would like to point everyone to my sell list below, which includes two very pretty actual copies of Trump #1 and 2. As I am reaching the point where I will have to pay Blogger to contnue this blog I really need to seell some stuff. I will hopefully be adding my Timely doubles next week.
But for now, using the information in The Art of Harvey Kurtzman, here is something they missed. In the late forties Kurtzman formed a studio with Harry Chester and Charles Ster. They only did one paid job, creating publicity material for the 1947 movie Hollywood Barn Dance. Unfortunately, the book doesn't include a sample of that. So hee is a very small ad I could find. According ro Paul Buhle, the three clashed over who got to do what and urtzman got the plumb big ad assignment. Still, the small illutsration here does have his telltale tapering of the feet.
2 comments:
Ger---You are indeed one of the "ten" foremost Kurtzman collectors out there, so for you to note that THE ART OF HARVEY KURTZMAN had new images and information even for you, well, that's high compliment. Regarding the obscure western move, my impression is that they did a small brochure to promote the movie to theaters---something different than the small newspaper ad you found. This would be very obscure, if any survive at all! Thanks again for your endorsement! ---Denis Kitchen
Denis,
maybe we should try with Ernest Tubb fans to find that brochure... good luck with that.
I was specificly thinking about the information about HK's war years in the book (as well as all the sketches and lay-outs). I have been looking for material from 1944/45 for a couple of years. The samples we have from summer 1944 and summer 1945 show an enormous leap forward in style, which should be visible somewhere. I especially liked the mimeographed illustration. Where did you get that? And where did the (possibly earlier) trench digging illustration from the San Francisco Museum slideshow originate from?
I am really looking forward to your next book and hope you will use my blog to announce the appearance and it's contents.
And how about letting someone finish the Scrooge adaptation?
Finally, do you know if the Trump reprint will collect issue #3?
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