Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, published in 1959. Kurtzman aimed it at an adult audience, in contrast to his earlier work for adolescents in periodicals such as Mad. The social satire in the book’s four stories targets Peter Gunn-style private-detective shows, Westerns such as Gunsmoke, capitalist avarice in the publishing industry, Freudian pop psychology, and lynch-hungry yokels in the South. Goodman Beaver was a stand-in for Kurtzman himself in this semi-autobiographical tale.
About Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book in brief
Harvey Kurtzman’s Jungle Book is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, published in 1959. Kurtzman aimed it at an adult audience, in contrast to his earlier work for adolescents in periodicals such as Mad. The social satire in the book’s four stories targets Peter Gunn-style private-detective shows, Westerns such as Gunsmoke, capitalist avarice in the publishing industry, Freudian pop psychology, and lynch-hungry yokels in the South. The title is an amalgamation of three bestselling 1950s novels: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by William H. Sloan, The Hand of the Hand by Cameron Hawley, and The Left Hand Suite by William. H. Wilson. It was not a financial success, but attracted fans and critics for its brushwork, satirical adult-oriented humor, experimental dialogue balloons, and adventurous page and panel designs. Thelonius Violence speaks in jazz slang while surrounded by beautiful women and jazz background music, which was a parody of the jazz-choreographed fight scenes in the Peter Gunn television series. Goodman Beaver was a stand-in for Kurtzman himself in this semi-autobiographical tale, and was his model for the editor of the men’s magazine in the story. He also worked on crossword puzzles early in his career, like Goodman Beaver did for Goodman Beaver in one of the stories. In the 1950s, a trend of adult Westerns appeared in which characters were given psychological motivations to explain their motivations.
The characters in The Hand Of The Left Suite were given motivations in which they were given their backgrounds in The Left and The Right Hand Suite, which were also given their motivations in The Right and the Left. The book was the first mass-market paperback of original comics published in the United States. It is Kurtzman’s longest solo work; at 140 pages, it is also his best-selling work to date. It has been called the most influential graphic novel of the 20th century, but it has also been criticized for being too formulaic and too derivative of other works by other cartoonists such as Stan Lee and Bob Clampett. It also has a cult status among fans, with many fans referring to it as the “Jungle Book” of the 50s and 60s. It remains a favorite of Kurtzman as he had control of this story, as he remained afavorite of the last stories to be completed. The story is about a young, vapid woman named Lolita Nabokov who is being blackmailed over her exam cheating. It shows the onslaughts of a thug who attempts to keep him away from the young woman, but in the end it is revealed that the thug and Violence are partners in her extortion. In his parody, Kurtzman retained little from the original Peter Gunn aside from the main character. It remained a favorite as he said he was trying to get … that Henry Mancini feel to the story to the story’s story.
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