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As most of you crazy Crivvies will already know, Mad started out as an ordinary comicbook for its first 23 issues, before metamorphosing into a magazine format. You'll have seen these covers before in a four part cover gallery I did a few years back, but I thought it would be handy to re-present them in an omnibus post so that they're all in one place. Enjoy refreshing your memories.
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Oh, go on then. Below is what the first magazine version's cover looked like.
Tuesday's syndicated comic panel Bizarro used the "Picasso chick" from Issue #22. I'm the one who pointed it out in the comments section.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm afraid I have to disagree with your declaring pre-magazine format MAD as a "ordinary" comic book. I own a collection volume set of those issues that I reread about every five years or so, and I'm always amazed how much of it still holds up despite it primarily being seventy-year-old topical satire. There's some brilliant stuff here that the passage of time has not diminished--I can only imagine the impact this stuff must of had when it was new.
ReplyDeleteI would've thought the context made clear that I was talking about the format, not the content. It wasn't yet a magazine, it was an ordinary comicbook - as in the same as other comicbooks, dimension-wise. Then it became a magazine.
ReplyDeleteApologies for my misinterpretation, then.
DeleteNo need to apologise, but it helps if commenters read things in context before commenting.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to read the topical satire in MAD mentioned by Top Cat James. We think of the 1950s as being rather stuffy and narrow-minded but there was some radical things going on too such as the satire he mentioned and the arrival of rock'n'roll etc. On BBC Sounds you can listen to all the episodes of The Goon Show (also broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4-Extra) and it amazes me how such a bizarre, surreal series was ever commissioned by the conservative BBC in the '50s.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the 'topical satire' aspect of early Mad comics extends only to 'satirizing' (taking the p*ss out of) topical comic strips of the day, CJ.
ReplyDeleteMy recent comments on Rip Jagger's Dojo still haven't appeared so the "out of town" reason is getting less and less likely it seems. Unfortunately there's no way to tell Rip.
ReplyDeleteI think RJ's recent posts are ones that first appeared on his other blog, CJ, and he can maybe post them using his 'phone or some other device. Perhaps he prefers to read comments on his computer, and if he is out of town, he's likely waiting 'til he returns before reading and answering them. Or Blogger have screwed up somehow. It should sort itself out.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the topicality of the material, for the most part you are right, but there's the hilarious and brilliant "What's My Shine?" from #17 that presents the Army-McCarthy Senate hearings as a TV quiz show, and is regarded as the crown jewel of early MAD. I also don't believe humor pieces on "bop" music would have much relevance currently. A few of the television parodies are of programs that are little remembered today (Captain Video, Martin Kane, Private Eye). Not just send-ups of newspaper funnies at all.
ReplyDeleteWhen I said 'comics strips', I was thinking more of comic mags (parodied by Super-Duper Man, Batboy & Rubin, etc.,) in comic mags, not 'newspaper funnies'. I've got the boxed, four volume set from the '80s, plus subsequent reprints of the first 23 issues, which I think are entertaining, but I don't regard them in quite the way you seem to.
ReplyDeleteNo 50th anniversary post for POTA #1 and Dracula Lives #1, Kid? I was looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteThe day's not over yet, CJ.
ReplyDelete