Sunday, May 18, 2008

Goodman Goes Playboy (by Kurtzman and Elder)

I'm a little late on this, but Will Elder, a great cartoonist, died a few days ago. I wish I could say more, but I think this rare comic would help.

Why is it rare? Well. . .

"During Will Elder’s run on the ill-fated Help! Magazine — one of three such publications upon which Elder collaborated with Mad founder Harvey Kurtzman following the latter’s exodus from the magazine that made him famous — a story starring Kurtzman and Elder’s naïve leading man Goodman Beaver attracted the ire of Archie Comics for taking their signature characters and grafting Hugh Hefner’s “Playboy Philosophy” onto them. That story was “Goodman Goes Playboy,” and it resulted in waves of lawyers raining upon the strip’s creators, ultimately leading to Kurtzman and Elder handing the copyright to the story over to Archie and signing an agreement promising never to reproduce it again."
---Comics Journal

There you have it. Enjoy this rarity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

fantastic work, thanks for posting it!