Mad Monday again and time for "Mad" (THE COMIC BOOK) #15 from September of 1954.
This is one of my very first memories of Mad. I read this story (in a reprint digest in the '60's) long before I was ever exposed to the newspaper comic strip that it parodies.
"Gasoline Alley" (is it still running?) began in newspaper syndication in the 1910's and was originally a "gag-a-day-one-panel" about a group of folks who spent their weekends puttering on their new fangled automobiles. Eventually it became a multi-panel focusing on one character in particular, Walt Wallet. What set the strip apart (and does to this day) is that the characters aged in real time. People met, married, had children...and miraculously THEY AGED! I believe only Lynn Johnstone's "For Better or For Worse" has done this since.
If it's out there today (and I think it might be) Walt is surely going on 120 years old and his generations of offspring are out there too. Who knows what their up to, I haven't picked up a newspaper in 20 years.
Until I find out, here's Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's take on what was already a venerable strip..."Gasoline Valley!".
Dig in!
Talk o you soon,
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2 comments:
Thanks for this! I've gone through life exclaiming "Caulky finally grew!" and "Willit Booble? I don't think so".
I've long since lost my old B&W paper back collections or the 1950s Mads, but they really influenced me and my weird sense of humor!
Thanks again.
This is wonderful. I was born in 1970, but in the late '70s Mad would publish these Super Special issues that included an insert that was an issue of Mad from the '50s. Even though I'd never seen or heard of the strip Gasoline Alley, I always loved this parody since I was 8. All my life I've going around quoting it. "Gosh. Spelled backwards is shog!" Thanks for posting. It's even better now.
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