elder collaborated frequently throughout his career with kurtzman. after leaving "mad" in 1957, the two worked together on a string of short-lived humor magazines: "trump", "humbug" and "help!". for "help!", elder and kurtzman created goodman beaver, a well-meaning naif whose trust in human nature and goodness were forever being undercut. one installment depicted the characters of "archie comics" as thoughtless hedonists, and was titled "goodman beaver goes playboy!". this parody resulted in a lawsuit from archie comics. kurtzman and elder had previously irritated the archie publisher with a parody in mad ("starchie!"). archie comics ended up with possession of the story's copyright. when the full goodman beaver series was reprinted by kitchen sink press, the story could not legally be included. however, after archie comics failed to renew its copyright, the original "goodman beaver goes playboy!" went into public domain and was published in fantagraphics' "comics journal".