Edited by Harvey Kurtzman, the magazine took satirical jabs at movies, television, advertising and various artifacts of popular culture, from cereal boxes to fashion photographs.

The 32-page first issue (August 1957) featured a front cover by Elder (with the announcement "The End of the World Is Coming" inside a border design depicting contemporary life).

Elder illustrated Kurtzman's satire of television's rigged Twenty One quiz show, and Davis spoofed the Elia Kazan film of Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll (1956).

Al Jaffee returned to Mad in the same issue as Siegel's debut, and remained with the magazine for more than half a century until he retired at age 99.

[4] Although Humbug offered the same type of superior satires Kurtzman had previously presented in Mad and Trump, the small size was a genuine problem.

It includes annotations by John Benson, a lengthy 2005 interview with Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee, plus a four-page explanation of exactly how restoration of the magazine was accomplished by Fantagraphics.

Hugh Hefner, who had published Trump, provided "those strange ones" at Humbug a nine-page feature in Playboy's December 1957 issue.

To Diana Green, the humor in Humbug suffered from a topicality "inherent in satire" that lost its bite when read out of its own time and context.