He especially enjoyed " Goodman Goes Playboy", which featured a boisterous romp in Hefner's mansion. Kurtzman submitted some Goodman Beaver strips and was surprised to receive a favorable response from Hefner, who liked the "fresh and eager" character. as an excuse or rationale for a slick magazine to be publishing a comic strip." Although single- panel cartoons were an established part of the magazine, a comic strip was unprecedented and had to be justified. Kurtzman continued to correspond with Hefner and Playboy executive editor Ray Russell, who was interested in Kurtzman's idea of a comic strip suitable for the magazine's audience and suggested " satire . This introduced the innocent and idealistic Goodman Beaver, a male character who continued to appear-with artwork by Elder-in Kurtzman's Help! (1960). However, he received a note from Hefner: "I bow to no one in my appreciation for H. Kurtzman." Hefner's praise encouraged Kurtzman to meet with publisher Ian Ballantine and create Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book (1959). It failed to gain a significant following, and a dejected Kurtzman began pitching feature proposals to Playboy, all of which were rejected.
He provided office space for the artists, from which they self-published the satirical magazine Humbug in 1957–58. Although it sold well, Hefner ran into financial problems in 1957 and halted Trump after two issues. Kurtzman took most of the Mad artists with him, including frequent collaborator Will Elder, to create the adult-oriented humor magazine Trump. Hefner offered Kurtzman an opportunity to conceive a new humor magazine for his enterprise, which the cartoonist accepted when he left Mad in 1956 in an ownership dispute. Harvey Kurtzman founded the satirical Mad magazine in 1952 an early fan was onetime cartoonist Hugh Hefner, who founded the men's magazine Playboy in 1953.
The complete series was collected into two volumes in 20 by Dark Horse Comics.
Critical reaction was mixed, with most praising the elaborate, fully painted comic, but some dismissing it as falling short of Kurtzman's full potential. Hefner edited each episode, often requiring detailed changes to ensure that the series remained true to the magazine's editorial style. Each episode of the comic strip was designed and written by Kurtzman and rendered in oil, tempera, and watercolor by Elder.
He had launched Mad magazine, worked briefly for Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner and on a series of solo and collaborative projects, then returned to working for Hefner with Little Annie Fanny. Harvey Kurtzman, a cartoonist, created the series at the culmination of his career. The series is notable for its painted, luminous color artwork and for being the first full-scale, multi-page comics feature in a major American publication. Annie Fanny, the title character, is a statuesque, buxom young blonde woman who innocently finds herself nude in every episode. Little Annie Fanny is a humorous satire of contemporary American society and its sexual mores. It appeared in 107 two- to seven-page episodes in Playboy magazine from October 1962 to September 1988. Little Annie Fanny is a comics series by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder.