"Scene's We's...Like to See!" - Jack Davis - Mad Monday!

"Howdy Dooit!" - Will Elder - Mad Mondays!

There've been some blog delays of late (over the last month or so) caused by interruptions in life.  I'll get more into what's happening as time goes on, but one thing I've been shown over and over in my life (but I never seem to hang on to until I'm shown again) is that art is EVERY bit as important as shelter and sustenance in making life worth living.  Problems in life are what art is for,  It's how our brain deals with it all.

Enough ambiguity about me, onto the task at hand.  Mad Monday!!!!

Mad THE COMIC BOOK #18's second feature, written by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by Will/Bill Elder takes on the boob tube and one of it's earliest mega-stars, Howdy Doody.  

Bill and Harvey really had a knack for sinking their teeth into this new-fangled television doo-hickey, and "Howdy Dooit!" is NO exception.  They specifically take on the evil manipulation of advertisers to manipulate kids to manipulate the mother's purse-strings to buy their schlock.  This story is almost 60 years old and tells a tale as fresh as today's marketplace...except a LOT funnier.

There's nothing new under the sun.  Dig in!

Talk to you soon.

"What's My Shine!" - Jack Davis - Mad Monday!

Jack Davis was fast becoming Harvey Kurtzman's "go to" guy when it came to satirizing the things shown on the idiot box.

Even as the house on unamerican activities (not capitalized on purpose...it was capitalize on enough in it's day.) and the witch hunt against comic books and anything fun were doing their worst...here's Mad THE COMIC BOOK's "What's My Shine!"

Dig in, kiddoes.

Talk to you soon.

"Captain TVideo!" - Mad Mondays - Jack Davis!

Good to be back here with "Mad Mondays!"...this week I finish up my posting of Mad THE COMIC BOOK #15 from 1954 with Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis' take on the television juggernaut "Captain Video"..."Captain TVideo!".

Jack had just turned in "The Countynental" last month, so Kurtzman must have made him his "go-to" guy for all things TV, black and white and fuzzy.  Or Jack took to it like a duck to butter...either way, this turned out great!

Enjoy!

Tomorrow we get back to Jeffy's odyssey inside his own head.

Talk to you soon.

"The Countynental!" - Jack Davis - Mad Monday!

You may remember Christopher Walken doing a bit on SNL spoofing a 1950's television show called "The Continental".  

Maybe you weren't aware that it was a spoof of an old television show...but it was...and here's "Mad"(THE COMIC BOOK)'s take on that TV show when it was contemporary.  A romantic rest stop in the mid day for lonely housewives everywhere, I'm really surprised this show didn't last longer.  I'd certainly have preferred a 40 year run of this to keep women busy than Oprah poisoning their minds.  

Ah, but I digress.

Here's Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis' take on it all, titles "The Countynental!".

Dig in!

Talk to you soon.

"Kane Keen!" - Mad Mondays!

Private eyes have been the subject of many adventure/detective stories and have a long healthy history. Dashielle Hammet's "Sam Spade" and Raymond Chandler's "Philip Marlowe" are surely the archetypes with many followers and it was probably "Martin Kane" on that brand new doohicky television (starring Ralph Bellamy) that inspired the name for this story. All those legions of private dick's were certainly a melting pot of inspiration for Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis is 1953 when for "Mad" the comic book #5 they did...

'KANE KEEN! Private Eye"...

Enjoy!

Talk to you soon.

"Miltie of the Mounties" - Mad Mondays!

Mountie adventure stories go way back. From Renfru of the Mounties to Sgt. Preston of the Yukon to the lampooning of Dudley Do-Right. Somewhere in the middle of this long tradition lies Harvey Kurtzman and John Severin's "Miltie of the Mounties!" from "Mad" the comic book issue #5 from 1953.

"Mad Monday" marches on. Enjoy!

Talk to you soon.