Fantagraphics is releasing a five-volume box set, MAD: The Complete Harvey Kurtzman Years, on June 1, 2027.
The entire original run of MAD work by the magazine’s creator and first editor will be reprinted in oversized (9″ x 12″) facsimile. MAD was created as a comic and ran for 23 issues under Kurtzman before it was converted to black-and-white magazine format. Regular artists included Will Elder, Wallace Wood, and Jack Davis, all putting out, first, parodies of other comics, then more wide-ranging satire.
The slipcased set reprints the first 30 issues of MAD and includes lots of extras:
- Original art and process work.
- Essays on the history of MAD and its major players: Kurtzman, Elder, Wood, Davis, John Severin, Al Jaffee, Marie Severin, William Gaines, Basil Wolverton, and Ben Oda.
- A section on Kurtzman’s pre- and post-MAD career, covering EC, Help!, Humbug, Trump, and Playboy‘s Little Annie Fanny.
- Discussion of Kurtzman and Elder’s unique decades-long working relationship, including a section reprinting their short-lived return to MAD in the 1980s.
- Coverage of MAD reprints and MAD ripoffs.
- A gallery of MAD cover reproductions, from the original mag to subsequent collections and archival efforts, showcasing surviving cover sketches, original cover art, color roughs, and more.
- A short history of Alfred E. Neumann.
The set has been delayed from its original planned release in October 2026 (see “Fall 2026 from Fantagraphics“). The 1,300-page hardback box set will retail at $300.
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Source: ICv2
