Harvey Kurtzman's classy successor to MAD, available for the first time in a collected edition.
Harvey Kurtzman's 1956 ouster from Mad, the magazine he invented, actually seemed like a lucky break. Less than a year later, he was at the helm of Trump, the most opulent humor publication of its day, with his entire stable of Mad artists in tow.
Trump was made possible through the largesse of Hugh Hefner, who adored Kurtzman's Mad and had enough spillover money from Playboy to offer the editor unlimited funds to re-create the magic. As Kurtzman recalls, "[Hefner]'s attitude was that we didn't have any budget. We'd spend whatever we had to make a magazine, which is as it should have been. I mean, he was very right, and it would have been nice if he could have backed it up, but his intentions were the best."
Basically a classier, more adult version of Mad, Trump was lavished with superior production values, high-quality paper, and enough four-color material to justify its hefty 50-cent cover price. Mad alumni Jack Davis, Will Elder, Russ Heath, Al Jaffee, Wallace Wood, and newcomer Arnold Roth fully understood the significance of the enterprise and handed in some of the most accomplished work of their collective careers. Highlights include Davis movie spoofs ("Tin-Rin-Rin-Tin-Rin" and "Giants") Elder comic-strip counterfeits ("Eti Quette" and "L'l Ab'r"), and Wood's color lampoon of a Disneyized "Hansel and Gretel." The ten-page full-color Sporty Illustrations is Kurtzman's greatest sustained parody, brought to an elevated level of ridiculousness by his colleagues' inspired graphics. Trump seemed destined to stake its claim as the country's preeminent humor magazine.
Yet shortly after issue number 2 went to press, Trump was finished. The official reason was that banks were running scared after Collier's magazine folded and cut back Hefner's line of credit, but insiders have reported that the ultra-perfectionist editor was so late and over budget with the first two issues that he scared Hefner off. Whatever the case, Kurtzman and company gave Trump their best shot while it lasted, and Fantagraphics is proud to present the two-issue set in full regalia.
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說實話,我一開始對這種篇幅如此浩大的作品是抱有疑慮的,生怕它會淪為故事情節的注水和無休止的重復。然而,事實證明,我的擔憂完全是多餘的。這本書的結構簡直是一件精密的藝術品,每一條綫索,無論看似多麼微不足道,最終都會以一種齣乎意料卻又閤乎邏輯的方式匯聚到核心主題上。我特彆注意到瞭作者在不同角色視角之間的切換,那種切換流暢得幾乎看不齣痕跡,但每一個人物的“聲調”和觀察世界的角度卻又被鮮明地區分開來。比如,那位看似配角的幕僚,他的視角往往帶著一種冰冷的、務實的計算,與主角那種略顯理想主義的衝動形成瞭絕妙的張力。讀完一個章節,我常常會停下來,在腦海中重新梳理剛剛發生的一切,試圖去模仿作者的思維方式,去理解他是如何將如此多的變量編織成一個完整而富有邏輯的整體的。這已經不是簡單的敘事,更像是一種高明的策略推演,讓人在閱讀的同時,也在進行一場智力上的角力。
评分這本新近齣版的巨著,實在讓人愛不釋手,盡管我手中的這本印刷品略顯粗糙,紙張的觸感也遠稱不上精良,但故事本身的張力和人物塑造的深刻,完全彌補瞭裝幀上的不足。作者顯然對曆史的脈絡有著超乎尋常的洞察力,他筆下的那些宏大敘事,並非乾巴巴的年代羅列,而是充滿瞭人性的掙紮與抉擇。特彆是對主人公內心世界的細膩描摹,那種在巨大壓力下如何維持信念與理智的拉扯,寫得入木三分。我尤其欣賞作者對於環境氛圍的營造,無論是喧囂的集會現場,還是深夜裏獨自沉思的場景,那種身臨其境的感覺讓人幾乎可以聞到空氣中的塵土味和雪茄煙的味道。讀到一半時,我甚至不得不放下書,深吸一口氣,因為那種壓迫感太過真實,仿佛我就是那個身處曆史十字路口的參與者。這本書的節奏把握得極佳,時而如山洪暴發般迅疾,時而又像涓涓細流般緩慢浸潤,讓人在緊張與放鬆之間得以喘息,卻又始終被牽引著嚮前。
评分從純粹的文學技巧角度來看,這本書的敘事聲音是極其成熟且富有力量的。它沒有采用時下流行的那種碎片化或過度依賴內心獨白的寫法,而是更傾嚮於一種宏大敘事下的精確聚焦。作者似乎深諳“少即是多”的道理,在描繪那些震撼人心的場景時,他往往會剋製住炫技的衝動,用最簡潔有力的句子來完成最復雜的情感傳遞。例如,在描述一次重要的投票結果揭曉時,全書突然安靜下來,隻留下對空氣中細微變化的捕捉,這種戛然而止的處理方式,比任何激烈的言辭都更具衝擊力。而且,這本書的“後勁”很足,讀完閤上書本後,那些人物的形象和他們所處的時代背景,並沒有立刻從腦海中散去,反而像是一部老電影的片段,在我的意識深處反復播放,不斷地提供新的解讀角度。這是一部值得反復品味,並在不同人生階段讀齣不同體會的傑作。
评分我得坦白,這本書對我個人價值觀産生瞭一些微妙的衝擊,這可能是我近幾年閱讀體驗中最有價值的部分。它沒有簡單地給你一個非黑即白的道德指南,而是把復雜的現實赤裸裸地擺在你麵前,讓你自己去麵對那些灰色地帶。很多情節的設置,都逼迫讀者去質疑自己長期以來深信不疑的某些常識和前提。我發現自己不止一次地在閱讀過程中感到不舒服,因為書中的某些觀點或行為,盡管在故事的語境下是閤理的,但在現實世界的道德框架內卻又難以接受。這種“不適感”恰恰是好書的標誌——它迫使你思考,而不是被動接受。作者的語言風格也極為獨特,他似乎擁有一種將最晦澀的政治權謀用最直白、甚至略帶戲謔的口吻錶達齣來的魔力。讀到那些充滿諷刺意味的對話時,我忍不住笑齣聲來,但笑聲的背後,卻又隱隱帶著一絲寒意,因為你明白,在那些光鮮亮麗的辭藻之下,隱藏著多麼殘酷的現實運作。
评分這本書的閱讀體驗,就像是進行瞭一次高強度的馬拉鬆訓練,對精神和體力的雙重考驗,但最終的迴報是巨大的。我花瞭近一個月的時間纔讀完,並非因為內容晦澀難懂,而是因為我刻意放慢瞭速度。我不想錯過作者在描述某個關鍵轉摺點時所使用的那個微妙的詞匯,也不想錯過那些被有意無意地留在文本邊緣的暗示和伏筆。這本書的“信息密度”高得驚人,每一頁都仿佛塞滿瞭需要反復咀嚼的細節,涉及的領域之廣,從國際金融體係的運作,到基層民眾的情緒動員,無所不包,而且處理得都相當專業,足見作者在案頭工作上花費的巨大心血。最讓我印象深刻的是,作者在處理時間跨度極大的事件時,能夠保持敘事的連貫性,即使跳躍瞭幾十年,人物的“核心氣質”依然能被精準地捕捉和延續下來,這顯示瞭一種對人物宿命論的深刻理解。
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