Goodman Beaver

Goodman Beaver is a fictional character who appears in comics created by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman. Goodman is a naive and optimistic Candide-like character, oblivious to the corruption and degeneration around him, and whose stories were vehicles for social satire and pop culture parody. Except for the character's first appearance, which Kurtzman did alone, the stories were written by Kurtzman and drawn by Will Elder.

Goodman first appeared in a story in ''Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book'' in 1959; the best-remembered were the five strips the Kurtzman–Elder team produced in 1961–62 for the Kurtzman-edited magazine ''Help!'' They tend to be in the parodic style Kurtzman developed when he wrote and edited '' Mad'' in the 1950s, but with more pointed, adult-oriented satire and much more refined and detailed artwork on Elder's part, filled with numerous visual gags.

The best-known of the Goodman Beaver stories is "Goodman Goes Playboy" (1962), a satire on the hedonistic lifestyle of Hugh Hefner using parodies of ''Archie'' comics characters, whose publisher threatened a lawsuit. The issue was settled out of court, and the copyright for the story passed to Archie Comics'' magazine called ''Little Annie Fanny'' (1962–1988).

Overview

Goodman Beaver is a naïve and optimistic character, oblivious to the degeneration around him. According to Kurtzman, the character was partially inspired by Voltaire's ''Candide'' and Harold Gray's comic strip character Little Orphan Annie, who, like Goodman, was drawn with blank circles for eyes. Art critic Greil Marcus compares Goodman to Young Goodman Brown in Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale of the same name—both are pure-souled characters who become disillusioned by the depravity they confront in the world.

Kurtzman wrote five Goodman Beaver stories for his long-time collaborator Will Elder. Most of the stories were in the parodic style Kurtzman had developed as the creator, editor, and writer of '' Mad'', but dealt with more significant issues concerning modernity. Published in the Kurtzman-edited ''Help!'' in the early 1960s, they were drawn in Elder's "chickenfat" style, in which he crammed every panel with humorous detail and throwaway gags. Elder cited the Flemish Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the Spanish Diego Velázquez as influences on this style.

Stories

"The Organization Man in the Gray Flannel Executive Suit"

As an editor hired by Schlock Publications Inc., Goodman loses his youthful idealism when awash in the sea of avarice and selfishness he encounters in the publishing world. In this story Kurtzman used his own personal experiences to satirize the corrupting influence of capitalism and power. Goodman finds himself groping the secretaries, just as the other cynical executives at Schlock do, and ends up stealing from the company.

Goodman was a semi-autobiographical character, reflecting Kurtzman's disillusioning experiences in the publishing industry. Kurtzman's artwork is in an exaggerated cartoon style with round, fluid, elongated characters rendered with loose, fluid, and sketchy brushwork and gray wash. Dialogue is in an expressive, handwriting-like style. Kurtzman blends the verbal and visual aspects of the work—for example, when an enraged Goodman Beaver confronts his diminutive boss Mr. Schlock, Goodman is graphically overwhelmed by Schlock's word balloons, which demonstrates Goodman's helpless subservience and Schlock's effortless psychological dominance over his employees.

"Goodman Meets T*rz*n"

"Goodman Meets T*rz*n" first appeared in the September 1961 issue of ''Help!'', and was Elder's first take on Goodman Beaver. Set against the backdrop of the fall of European colonialism in the face of the rise of African nationalism

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