Humbug (magazine)

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Humbug was a humor magazine edited by Harvey Kurtzman. It began August 1957 in a black-and-white comic-book size format. Although the contents were the same type of superior satires Kurtzman had offered previously in Mad and Trump, the small size was a genuine problem. In magazine racks it was hidden behind larger magazines. Despite a change to a regular magazine format with the tenth issue, it ceased publication with issue #11.

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. Many of Humbug's contributors were also the project's financial supporters, but their investments were lost when the magazine folded because of poor distribution.

Some material from the magazine was collected in the paperback, The Humbug Digest (Ballantine Books). A complete collection of "Humbug" material is scheduled to be published in 2008.

[edit] External links

• Comparison of Kurtzman layouts with finished Humbug pages