Upstairs to Arnold Roth

The Harvey Kurtzman exhibit at the Society of Illustrators. 

After indulging my eyes in two floors of artwork from Harvey Kurtzman and his colleagues at the Society of Illustrators in Manhattan, I was about to leave when I noticed artwork by other artists leading up the stairs.  I'm here, why not?  I thought.  At the top of the stairs I was pleasantly surprised to see the hallway lined with Arnold Roth's work from magazines such as Punch, The New Yorker, and Playboy.  As one of Kurtzman's contemporaries, and a partner in Humbug, it was only fitting to have Roth's work represented as well.  The only artist missing from the mix was Al Jaffee.

Chicken Fat at the Society of Illustrators

Even Harvey Kurtzman's signature is funny.

I don't live in New York, but I just happened to be there when the Society of Illustrators on 63rd Street opened its new exhibit, The Art of Harvey Kurtzman.  I have been a fan of Kurtzman since I was a pre-teen and discovered Mad comics through reproduced inserts in Mad magazine's "Super Special" issues. Even as a kid, I noticed there was something about those old comics that was lacking in the Mad magazine  of 1974.  I didn't know it then, but the missing piece was Harvey Kurtzman.