Humbug (magazine)

"Humbug" was a humor magazine edited by Harvey Kurtzman with satirical jabs at movies, television, advertising and various artifacts of popular culture, from cereal boxes to fashion photographs. When it began August 1957 in a black-and-white comic-book size format, Kurtzman delivered his declaration of editorial principles in the first issue::We won't write for morons. We won't do anything just to get laughs. We won't be dirty. We won't be grotesque. We won't be in bad taste. We won't sell magazines.

Several of the contributing artists had previously worked with Kurtzman when he was the editor of "Mad", including Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee and Will Elder. The 32-page first issue featured a front cover by Elder (with the announcment "The End of the World Is Coming" inside a border design depicting contemporary life), followed with interior artwork by Elder, Kurtzman, Wood, Davis, Jaffee and Arnold Roth. Outside writer contributions included a piece by the novelist and screenwriter Ira Wallach. Elder illustrated Kurtzman's satire of television's rigged "Twenty One" quiz show, and Davis spoofed the Elia Kazan film of Tennessee Williams' "Baby Doll" (1956). The second issue expanded from 32 pages to 48 pages.

Although "Humbug" offered the same type of superior satires Kurtzman had previously presented in "Mad" and "Trump", the small size was a genuine problem. It sometimes was the smallest publication in magazine racks, with the result that it was often hidden behind larger magazines. Despite a change to a larger magazine format with the tenth issue, it ceased publication with issue #11. Many contributors to "Humbug" were also the project's financial supporters, but their investments were lost when the magazine folded because of poor distribution. Kurtzman closed up shop with the following editorial in the magazine's last issue::Man—We're Beat! Satire has got us beat. 1953—We started "Mad" magazine for a comic-book publisher and we did some pretty good satire and it sold very well. 1956—We started "Trump" magazine... and we worked much harder and we did much better satire and we sold much worse. 1957—We started "Humbug" magazine and we worked hardest of all and turned out the very best satire of all, which of course now sells the very worst of all. And now... as they throw rocks at Vice President Nixon... as space gets cluttered with missiles... and as our names are carefully removed from our work in "Mad" pocketbooks—a feeling of beatness creeps through our satirical veins and capillaries and we think how George S. Kaufman once said, "Satire is something that closes Saturday night."

Some material from the magazine was collected in the paperback, "The Humbug Digest" (Ballantine Books). A complete collection of "Humbug" material is being reprinted in a two-volume slipcased edition by Fantagraphics Books in December 2008.

External links

* [http://www.deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=A_HK.youthere&Category_Code= Comparison of Kurtzman layouts with finished "Humbug" pages]
* [http://members.aol.com/MadandSon1/psa4.html "Humbug" index by Jerry A. Moore]