Mad THE COMIC BOOK Text Extras 4!

Mad THE COMIC BOOK #16 continues to poke holes in the convention of using text pages as content filler, but taking it up a notch from issues 13 and 14, where at least they stuck to the Greco-Roman alphabet, here they continue their socio-political bent with ancient Egyptian!

Awesome.

And...:)

Back to the norm with issue 18 and "The Rookie Gladiator"...

...but then again, maybe not.  Here's about as surreal a comic note as ever was hit in Mad.

"Hevo the Great" is the first of 4 text pages in issue #19.  I like how even Kurtzman's spot cartoons can dress even a bunch of boring old words up.

Then back to the series of the un-readable...here's a little backwards talk...you know, like this!

And then, a couple of real treats...at least as presented in my collection of re-prints...these were originally printed elsewhere...here's "The EC Artist of the Issue - Wallace Wood" originally printed in "Weird Science" in 1952.

"The EC Artist of the Issue - Jack Davis!" from "Two-Fisted Tales" in 1952.  Oh the talent that passed through EC's doors.

And then by issue #20, maybe the Mad knucklehead's are starting to notice how truly hip they are.  A slight call back to this story in #9.  More Bop dictionary.

Talk to you soon.

Mad THE COMIC BOOK Text Extras 3!

Even MORE Mad text pages from when it was a comic book.

"Operation Under-the-Ground" re-surfaces in issue #11...

...as does the sultry comic thriller "Lady in Mascara!"

In issue #13 you can really tell that the cartoonists at Mad thought the text pages were a waste of, if not space, certainly their time.  Here's the evidence as Mad gets socio-political...in GREEK..."OEATPIKO EPTO!".

I think it's AWESOME!  Proving that Kurtzman and Co. took nothing, not even the necessities of their industries, seriously!

Also in #13, Cosmo McMoon (Christ, that's a great name!) returns in "The Dandelion Caper!".

And right back in #14, MORE Greek goodness with "'Mszentelesi Un Jubileumi Ban' by Zabb Kotof!"

I love when the busy work is rendered as non-sensical as the reasons behind it.

Talk to you soon.

Mad THE COMIC BOOK Text Extras 2!

More Harvey Kurtzman text gems from the early days of Mad THE COMIC BOOK.

From issue #7

2 from #8, again featuring "Operation Under-the-Ground!"

And Cosmo McMoon returns in issue #10.

Great character name.

 

Talk to you soon!

Mad THE COMIC BOOK Text Extras!

I'll be working on some projects today, so to make up for some missed "Mad Monday"s and to keep this blog updating, here's some fillers from issues we've covered thus far.

Remember, back in the day comics publishers knew that they would get a cheaper mailing rate for their books by adding 2 pages of text to every "funny picture story book" they published,  The USPS granted them magazine status when this was done and got a lower periodical rate by doing so.  Eventually comics used "letters" pages and things like "Stan Lee's Soap Box", "Bullpen Bulletins", "DC Direct Currents" and the like to take care of this, but wayyyyyyyyy back in the mid-fifties, the thought was just to do some text features.

Here's the pages from Mad #1.  I'm sure the text was hammered out by Harvey Kurtzman, but I'm not sure and too lazy to look it up. :P

"Crow Vadis?" and "The 'EC' Artist of the Issue - Harvey Kurtzman"!

Another humor piece, this one from Mad #2, "Calling Cosmo McMoon"!

Certainly my favorite from this batch of extras, "The EC Publisher of the Issue - William M. Gaines (alias Melvin)"!  A comic book classic, a comic book icon.

From issue #4, it seems Harvey was really getting his legs.  Here's a resurrection of the character Cosmo McMoon answering some reader's letters.  Years before Alfred E. Newman, Kurtzman had an idea for a persona to associate with the comic.  Melvin is another from those early issues.  Great to see and watch the development.

Also from #4, "The Parole"!!!

A very funny and innovatively formatted humor piece, "Exam"! from Mad #5.

More of these to come!

Talk to you soon!

"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.