Harvey Kurtzman was a cartoonist, comics writer, editor, teacher, satirist, and shaper of culture—and is considered one of the handful of "Grand Masters" of the comics medium. A lifelong New Yorker, he is perhaps best known for creating MAD magazine in 1952, after spending two years at EC Comics writing and editing war stories. He left MAD in 1956 and, with the backing of publisher and cartoonist manqué Hugh Hefner, launched the humor magazine Trump. It failed, as did subsequent publications Humbug and Help!, but in the process Kurtzman employed as assistant editors Gloria Steinem, Terry Gilliam (connecting him to John Cleese, thereby assisting in the birth of Monty Python), and Robert Crumb; worked with a number of stars of the underground comix movement, as well as French cartoonists such as Goscinny (co-creator of Asterix) and Gotlib (a pioneer of alternative comics); and included contributions from Mel Brooks, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, and many more.

Kurtzman's Jungle book (1959) is sometimes considered the first of what we now call a "graphic novel," nearly 20 years before Will Eisner's A contract with God (often considered the "first graphic novel"). In the early 1960s, Kurtzman and longtime colleague Will Elder collaborated on the "Little Annie Fanny" comic strip for Playboy, and contributed to Esquire, The Saturday evening post, and TV guide with some regularity.

In the 1970s, Kurtzman began teaching cartooning at the School of Visual Arts, having been hired at the express request of the cartooning students. Around the same time, Kurtzman's interest in underground comics and acquaintance with Denis Kitchen led to a comprehensive series of Kitchen Sink Press reprints of his work. He collaborated with the crème de la crème of satirical and/or underground comics, and was keenly interested and involved in the French bandes dessinnées scene.