Elder & Kurtzman Original Art: Goodman Beaver Meets T*rz*n

HARVEY KURTZMAN & WILL ELDER. Page 38,"Goodman Meets T*rz*n" episode (1961) in Goodman Beaver.

This is from the first of five hilarious G.B. stories that Kurtzman & Elder created for Help! magazine in the early '60s, before Goodman morphed into "Little Annie Fanny" for Playboy. In this Cold War parody Tarzan faces an unusual adversary in the jungle: a communist Tarzan! On this page the real Tarzan engages in a push-up contest with his counterpart from the Kremlin. (Note: page number is from the Kitchen Sink Press collection, not Help! or the MacFadden paperback, Executive Comic Book.)

Provenance: From the estate of Harvey Kurtzman. Comes with a letter of authenticity upon request.

Size/medium/condition/price: Written by Kurtzman. Drawn by Elder based on pencil layouts by Kurtzman. Pen, brush and ink on Craftint Duotone board mounted on heavy illustration board. Latter board measures 8 1/2" wide x 11" high. Actual image is 6 1/2" x 8 1/2". The "original" lettering on all Goodman Beaver art consists of photostats glued to the board with forty year-old rubber cement. One word, "---with," is missing in the solitary word balloon.There are printer's handwritten notations outside the image area. Unlike later Goodman Beaver episodes, whose gray tones are added to pages abstractly via overlays, Elder drew this story on "Craftint Duotone paper," a special illustrator's board whose hidden dot patterns emerge when the artist applies a special chemical. Thus the gray tone is an intrinsic part of this original. There is a visible cut line just below the Tarzans' hands. The upper area appeared in the original Help! version. The area below was added later by Elder to make the Help! panels proportional to the vertical McFadden paperback collection pages. For a fuller explanation and example of this process, see pages 8-9 of the Kitchen Sink Goodman Beaver collection. Exquisite pen and ink and cross-hatching work by Elder. From the self-described "funniest" work this famous team ever created.