A MAD look at anti-police demonstrations

Taken from "Badge & Billy", a magazine parody, written by Larry Siegel and drawn by George Woodbridge, in MAD Magazine No. 101, June 1966. That's right, folks. This nonsense has been going on for over half a century, ever since the hippy-dippy `60s.

Also in MAD No. 101: Voyage to See What's on the Bottom (TV satire); The Sinpiper (movie satire); MAD's Puzzle Page, Badge & Billy Magazine, College Programs to Develop Masters of Meiocrity, A MAD Treasure of Unknown Poety; When Teenagers Take Over TV Completely; and much more.

Front cover by Norman Mingo. Art by Don Martin, Antonio Prohias, David Berg, Mort Drucker, Bob Clarke, Jack Rickard, Al Jaffee, Joe Orlando, Paul Coker Jr. and George Woodbridge.

Wanna buy it? We've taken down Walt's Attic, but Mrs Walt is cleaning out the attic and has one copy left. 48 b&w newsprint pages plus 4/1 glossy cover (includes MAD Fold-in, not done). Intact. Pages slightly yellowed with age but no tears, creases, dogears or other major damage. Overall condition FINE. US$3.95, plus S&H. Send Ed. an e-mail if you're interested.

Puzzle page: What's wrong with this picture?

Ed. here. Today's post about a puzzle page in an early issue of MAD magazine has drawn a lot of interest. Walt thinks we should have a puzzle page of our own, so let's start with:

Q. What's wrong with this picture?

A. Nothing! Didn't you get the memo on political correctness and Islamophobia?

Further reading: "Swedish Politician Sees 'Advantages' of Polygamy", Breitbart News, 6/11/19.

A reply to a reader's comment about MAD Magazine

In a comment appended to "MAD no longer", WWW 7/7/19, a reader with a long memory writes: In the old days, there was also a small booklet version of MAD magazine. Wider than it was tall. Perhaps even hard cover? I don't remember. In one of them I remember seeing a clever quiz type page that showed a scene of a girl sitting in a room and the caption was "What's wrong with this picture?". As you began to examine the picture you found that absolutely everything was wrong and nothing was correct. The girl was sitting with her head on her hand but her head was upside down. There was a window in the room and outside was a ship that was sinking, etc. I was only about 6 years old and this struck me as hilarious. An early introduction to irony.

Good news, reader! Ed. has hunted through Walt's enormous collection of MAD, National Lampoon, Playboy and other fine literature and found this.

And here's the answer page, showing that you were 100% correct!

The "puzzle" appears to be the work of Bill/Will Elder, one of the original "gang of idiots" who produced MAD 's "humor in a jugular vein" in the mid- to late fifties.

Now then, about the "small booklet version", to which you refer. Ed. found these pages in a Ballantine paperback titled Inside MAD, originally published in 1955. (The additional title - "William M. Gaines'" - was added in reprints a couple of years later, after Gaines took over MAD from the original publisher, Harvey Kurtzman.)

The book is in the standard paperback format of the time, about 4.25" wide by 7". The reason you remember it as being in horizontal format is because most of the pages were printed in landscape format, so they could chop up the comix into one line (from the magazine format) per page and still print it at a reasonably readable size.

Included in Inside MAD were three puzzle pages, a "Backword" by Stan Freberg, Mickey Rodent!, Slow Motion, Howdy Dooit!, Smilin' Melvin!, Mark Trade!, Movie Ads!, Katchandhammer Kids!, Bat Boy and Rubin!, Shermlock Shomes!, and ad parodies. Besides Bill Elder, artwork was done by Jack Davis and Wallace/Wally Wood -- terrific comic book artists, all three of them.

Now here's the really excellent news. If you'd like to have a copy, let Ed. know where to contact you. Write your e-mail address in the comment window. We won't publish it, but Walt will make you an eminently reasonable offer! And we do thank you for your interest!

MAD no longer

It was a noisy weekend in this neck of the woods, what with the July 4th celebrations and all. Independence Day was great, if not greater than ever. We didn't see any tanks rolling down main street but the Fort Mudge fire department put some extra wax on Old Number 1 and it looked great, pulled by those beautiful white horses. Over at the Arts Park (named after Art Holmgren, Art Ross and Art Fuldodger) last night concluded with a truly spectacular fireworks show, which must have lasted half an hour. Good weekend to be proud to be an American!

Walt was saddened, though, to hear that one of America's greatest-ever magazines, MAD, will no longer be available on newsstands after next month's issue. After that, they're going to do only reprints (with new covers) until subscriptions expire, and then it's lights out.

Perhaps it's just as well. The mag isn't what it was in the glory days of the `50s and `60s, when I first discovered it. Founded in 1952 by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, MAD launched as a comic book before it switching to a larger magazine format.

So it was when I first saw it on the shelf (amidst the Disney and Warner Bros. "comics") at McQueen's Variety Store (on Queen Street, natch). I was dismayed to see that the cover price was a whole quarter -- half my allowance for a week -- and more dismayed that Old Man McQueen, being a dour Scot, didn't take kindly to kids thumbing through his wares. I was forced to take a paper route to finance my reading.

I couldn't help it. I was hooked on MAD's well-written and well-illustrated satire on all aspects of life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. My liking for their "humour in a jugular vein" (the subtitle to the early comic books) was heightened by the contributions of guest writers, notably Bob and Ray, whose radio show I never missed.

In its earliest years, MAD frequently used outside "name" talent, with Bob and Ray's [Bob's and Ray's? Ed.] contributing no fewer than 12 pieces, more than anyone else. MAD simply illustrated their preexisting material. When MAD learned that Tom Koch was the writer behind the Bob and Ray radio sketches, the editors hired him, and he wrote more than 300 MAD articles over the next 37 years.

Second only to Bob and Ray, Ernie Kovacs -- one of my TV favourites in the `50s -- contributed 11 pieces. His off-the-wall humour was perfect for MAD, if not for your average boob tube viewer. Other irregular contributors included Tom Lehrer, Wally Cox, Stan Freberg, Henry Morgan, and Sid Caesar. There were also single pieces by Charles M. Schulz, Chevy Chase, Will Eisner (the great "dark" illustrator), Jean Shepherd, Jules Feiffer, and the late great Walt Kelly, creator of Pogo.

MAD didn't rely solely on guest shots. It had its own excellent (and not-so-excellent) writers and illustrators, as well as writer-illustrators like Don Martin and Dave Berg. I was never a fan of either of them. Don Martin, in particular, pandered to the truly juvenile. Too bad he couldn't illustrate fart jokes.

The artists deserving of the name who stick in my mind were Wally Wood, Mort Drucker, Bill Elder and Jack Davis. Their work graces the issues of the `50s and `60s, and can be found in pocket-book collections of the early issues. Their drawings were really edgy. Wally Wood, in particular, used to crowd every panel with little bits and pieces which would only reveal themselves to the keen and careful reader. The more anodyne style of the more recent illustrators was, IMHO, one of the reasons for MAD's fall from the heights.

In 2015, "Weird Al" Yankovic served as MAD's first and only guest editor, writing some material and guiding the content in issue #533, while upping his own career Mad byline total from two to five. On social media this weekend "Weird Al" expressed his sorrow at the magazine's demise. "I am profoundly sad to hear that after 67 years, MAD Magazine is ceasing publication," said the singer-songwriter. "I can't begin to describe the impact it had on me as a young kid--it's pretty much the reason I turned out weird. Goodbye to one of the all-time greatest American institutions. #ThanksMAD."