Denis Kitchen, UNDERGROUND CLASSICS; THE ART OF HARVEY KURTZMAN co-author: Mr. Media Radio Interview

Summary: Underground comic legendary publisher and artist Denis Kitchen joins Mr. Media live to discuss his two new books, Underground Classics (written with James Danky) and The Art of Harvey Kurtzman (with Paul Buhle). Kurtzman discovered Robert Crumb, gave Gloria Steinem her first publishing job, and “Monty Python” animator Terry Gilliam also started at his side. Kurtzman had a Midas touch for talent, but was himself an astonishingly talented and influential artist, writer, editor, and satirist. He created MAD and Playboy's "Little Annie Fanny." Kurtzman's groundbreaking "realistic" war comics of the early '50s and various satirical publications (MAD, Trump, Humbug, Help!) had an immense impact on popular culture, inspiring a generation of underground cartoonists. Underground comix galvanized artists both domestically and abroad; they forever changed the economics of comic book publishing and influenced generations of cartoonists, including their predecessors. While the works of Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman are well-known via the New Yorker, Maus, and retrospective collections, the art of their contemporaries such as Gilbert Shelton, Trina Robbins, Justin Green, Kim Deitch, S. Clay Wilson, and many other seminal cartoonists who came of age in the 1960s is considerably less known. Denis Kitchen is a pioneering cartoonist, writer, editor, and underground comic book publisher.