Apr 1, 2015
Terry Gilliam calls him a god. Entire generations were taught the importance and power of satire by his examples. The highest honor FOR comics professional voted on exclusively BY comics professionals takes its name from him. His name was Harvey Kurtzman, and in 1959 he published “Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book”, a collection of short comic tales intended for the mainstream adult readership almost 15 years before Will Eisner did likewise with “A Contract With God”. Unlike “Contract”, “Jungle Book” landed with a thud of epic proportions. So why are Mike & Greg talking about it today? Why is pure Kurtzman the best Kurtzman when you have artists like Wally Wood, Will Elder, and the like to bring his ideas to life? With all the accolades he achieved, is Kurtzman still underrated? Does “Jungle Book” still hold up almost 60 years later? Learn what brought Kurtzman from EC Comics to Ballantine Books, what did Frank Miller admitted helped him shamelessly steal from Will Eisner in his “Daredevil” run, how does “Jungle Book” stack up against “Comic Book Comix”, an earlier Dark Horse/Kitchen Sink release, and tons more in this week’s episode!
Robots From Tomorrow is a weekly comics podcast recorded deep beneath the Earth’s surface. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or through the RSS feed at RobotsFromTomorrow.com. You can also follow Mike and Greg on Twitter. This episode is brought to you by Third Eye Comics. Enjoy your funny books.