Jack Davis - The Mad Cartoonists - part 1

After a week spent touting the work of Basil Wolverton and particularly his contribution to both the Mad comic book AND the magazine, I thought it would be nice to highlight the backbone of that comic book when it first hit the stands in 1952...60 years ago.

One of the most recognizable styles in cartooning is Jack Davis. His work has adorned every dang magazine out there from Time to TV Guide, he's done album art work and movie posters and who-knows-what-all, but his work will forever be indelibly associated with Mad.


He was working for EC Comics already, on titles like "Two-Fisted Tales", "Tales from the Crypt" and "The Vault of Horror" when Harvey Kurtzman tapped him for his new humor comic. Jack was a natural.

Here's the first story from the very first issue of Mad, written by Kurtzman and drawn by Davis. A spoof of their own horror comics, it let the world know that all bets were off and no one was untouchable. If they'd lampoon themselves, then nothing was ever going to be sacred. Not from this "usual band of idiots".

Enjoy.

There's more Jack Davis and Harvey Kurtzman's "Mad" coming up this week.

Talk to you soon.