Documentary Review: ‘The Mad Mad World Of Harvey Kurtzman’

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Review by James Lindorf

In 1952, Harvey Kurtzman and EC Comics publisher William Gaines created “MAD,” helping shape the next 70 years of entertainment. Director Bart Simpson’s “The Mad World of Harvey Kurtzman” follows the man who helped reshape comics, satire, and popular culture, drawing on rare archives, interviews with those who knew him, handcrafted animation, and an original jazz score. The film has its North American premiere at DOC NYC on Friday, November 13th at IFC Center, with a second screening Saturday, November 14th at Village East by Angelika.

The documentary covers Kurtzman’s whole life, from meeting friends and eventual coworkers in high school to his death in 1993 from cancer and Parkinson’s disease. The beginning and end are only briefly touched on, with most of its runtime covering 1950-1965. This 15-year period covers everything from his start at EC Comics and the creation of “MAD” in 1952 to the final issue of “Help!” Personally, during this time he and his wife Adele welcomed three of their four children. Nellie, who is featured prominently in the film, wasn’t born until 1969. Professionally, beyond trying to create and sell his art, he faced an FBI investigation, a Senate hearing on whether comics were warping children, and a break with “MAD” to work with Hugh Hefner. Kurtzman is mostly seen in television interviews, while family, friends, and peers share personal and behind-the-scenes stories. Matt Groening, Terry Gilliam, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Sergio Aragonés, and the late Stan Lee are among the many voices singing Harvey’s praises.

What makes the documentary work and feel authentic is that no one version of Harvey is allowed to stand. One person calls him dictatorial, and another says he couldn’t crack the whip. The film trusts you to understand both of his professional sides. He had a precise way he wanted things done and was willing to give an ultimatum to get it, but beyond that he may have lacked the drive or personality traits to make sure it got done. That kind of contradiction is hard to find in a tribute, and it makes him feel like a person. It also helps explain a pattern that wears a little thin on screen. The series of failed magazine attempts must have been awful for him, and the compounding failures are probably why he turned down offers like Stan Lee’s request to create a “MAD” style magazine for Marvel. I wish they had gone more into what he did after “Help!”, as it stands, you know he works, focuses on family, and gets sick, but with the film already running long, I didn’t need more.

The animation was a smart choice for several reasons. It fits a film about a man who handcrafted his art from his earliest days. It also adds excitement by taking his static images, which could have read as a long slideshow of a daughter showing you her dad’s art, and breathing life into them in step with the score. Simpson told me the priority was preserving the integrity of Harvey’s work, so the team at 2D Workshop manipulated his actual drawings, sometimes cheekily, instead of drawing something that looks like them. He reasoned that Harvey always wanted to be a filmmaker, so what would he have done if he were alive now? Maybe this. The standout animations are the love letters between Harvey and Adele, which get a playful and tender treatment helped by Marty Hailey’s score, and the war comics, which hit with the same immediacy as the originals.

I admitted to Simpson that I assumed “MAD” ended when it left newsstands in 2018. He says it lives on in special formats, mostly reprints, but what fascinated him and was a leading factor in creating this film is how relevant Harvey’s point of view still is. Harvey started poking at television, movies, and celebrity just as mass media was blossoming, and we are surrounded by even more of it now with social media and quick media hits. In his words, Harvey’s “laughter in the face of a host of issues” can help us filter through the noise and ask why we focus on what we do.

Fans of “MAD” and satire are the obvious audience, as are people who enjoy documentaries like “Crumb” and “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist.” It will resonate most with millennials through boomers, largely due to their proximity to Harvey’s work, the work of the artists he inspired like Crumb and Groening, and the heyday of “The Simpsons.” “The Mad World of Harvey Kurtzman” is a restless, funny, and honest look at the man behind it all. The jazz score brings energy throughout, and neither the visuals nor the music ever falter. The film does feel a tad too long, or maybe just repetitive, as project after project fails, which is all that holds it to a 4 out of 5.

Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Premiere): November 13th, 2026, DOC NYC
Runtime: 1h 32m
Director: Bart Simpson
Producer: Ina Fichman, Aimara Reques
Production Co: Intuitive Pictures, Aconite Productions