For a blog about black and white comic magazines, I don't talk about Mad very much. Why is that? It certainly deserves the attention, being the preeminent source of humor for at least two generations, not to mention being the last surviving publication of the legendary EC Comics(even if its in name only at this point).I think its because its hard to review humor--either you find something funny, or you don't. Writing sentences like "One of Al Jaffee's lesser Fold-Ins" just seems a bit silly to me.
But I do have this issue of Mad in my collection--the 100th anniversary issue, yet--so I'll do my best.
The opening feature is "Future Broadway Musicals", a very clever piece featuring literary classics set to song, like Moby Dick, Julius Caesar, A Tale of Two Cities, and Tarzan of the Apes. Very funny and incredibly inventive, with nice art by Jack Rickard.
There's also "The Wonderful World of Re-Packaging", featuring one of Mad's favorite targets. advertising. Spy vs. Spy checks in afterwards, and then is "The Nilson Family" by Stan Hart and the legendary, seemingly immortal Mort Drucker.
Paul Coker contributes the silly "Mad Beastlies", and Dave Berg shows us "The Lighter Side of Sleep." Sergio Aragones provdies approximately a million little drawings for "What Is A Blind Date?", and then is "Shirley Finster's New York", featuring some incredibly detailed artwork by George Woodbridge, making the piece look and feel like its setting. "Keep New York Clean! Dump YOur Litter in New Jersey."--heh.
There's a Mad Puzzle Page by Al Jaffee, "Mad's Modern Believe it or Nuts!", and "The Toy Manufactuer of the Year" by Stan Hart and Joe Orlando!
Spy Vs. Spy returns, and then the late, great Don Martin illustrates "The Swan Song of A Modern Hiawatha", another very clever melding of high culture and lowbrow humor.
"Hack, Hack, Sweet Has-Been"(ouch) is by Larry Siegel and Mort Drucker, rendering dead-on caricatures of Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland, and then we wrap up with one more Don Martin page and of course, a Mad Fold-In, an unusually sweet one("Happy Holidays") from the Usual Gang of Idiots.
4 comments:
"Hack, Hack, Sweet Has-Been"
They don't WHOSE toes they step on!
i dont know who that Spiro Agnew guy is they keep making fun of, he must work there or something!
Hey--MAD's always been a product of it's time! At least back then there was more of a common popular culture. When my son was buying MAD 4 or 5 years ago, it seemed like 30% of the jokes required detailed knowledge of American Idol or the Howard Stern Show.
that's true--Mad assumed kids would know who Spiro Agnew was and could make fun of him.
maybe thats coming back a bit, since in the recent Mads ive seen theyve taken shots at Cheney and Rumsfeld, but nothing too terribly insider-y.
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