''Hey Look!'' is a series of one-page comic book fillers by American cartoonist

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...

, produced between 1946 and 1949 for

Timely Comics Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...

Overview

''Hey Look!'' is one of the few projects on which Kurtzman handled all of the writing and art chores. The series starred an unnamed "big guy" and "little guy". While the pages showed the budding talent of the young Kurtzman, the genius he would display later was not evident in the early strips. According to Kurtzman, "the first was horrible alongside the last".

Publication history

Harvey Kurtzman had been making

crossword puzzle A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answ ...

s for publisher Martin Goodman in the 1940s. A distant relative of Goodman's, Stan Lee, worked as an editor for Goodman's

(a precursor to

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

) He offered Kurtzman work doing one-page fillers. Lee gave the strip its title. Kurtzman produced 150 of the strips between 1946 and 1949. In 1991, underground cartoonist

Denis Kitchen Denis Kitchen (born August 27, 1946) is an American underground cartoonist, publisher, author, agent, and the founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Early life Kitchen grew up in Wisconsin, attending William Horlick High School, Racine, ...

Kitchen Sink Press Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hard ...

published a volume reprinting the complete ''Hey Look!'' series ().

Reception and legacy

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing r ...

'' listed ''Hey Look!'' at #63 on their list of The Top 100 (English Language) Comics of the 20th Century. Critic Eric Reynolds in his appreciation of ''Hey Look!'' wrote "the ''Hey Look!'' strips are amongst the purest expression of cartooning ever put to paper". Animator

Vincent Waller Vincent Paul Waller (born September 30, 1960) is an American writer, storyboard artist, animator, and technical director. He has worked on several animated television shows and movies, the most notable ones being ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' and ' ...

made an adaptation of ''Hey Look!'' for ''

Oh Yeah! Cartoons ''Oh Yeah! Cartoons'' is an American animated anthology series that aired on Nickelodeon. Created by Fred Seibert, it was produced by Frederator Incorporated and Nickelodeon Animation Studio, running as part of Nickelodeon's Nicktoons lineup. In ...

'' in 1998.

References

Works cited

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Overview

Publication history

Reception and legacy

References

Works cited

Further reading