 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 . 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 . Kurtzman took most of the Mad artists with him , including frequent collaborator Will Elder , to create the adult @-@ oriented humor magazine Trump . Although it sold well , Hefner ran into financial problems in 1957 and halted Trump after two issues . He provided office space for the artists , from which they self @-@ published the satirical magazine Humbug in 1957 – 58 . It failed to gain a significant following , and a dejected Kurtzman began pitching feature proposals to Playboy , all of which were rejected . 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 ) . This introduced the innocent and idealistic Goodman Beaver , a male character who continued to appear — with artwork by Elder — in Kurtzman 's Help ! ( 1960 ) . 
