Mad Archives
Before Mad was the black-and-white magazine that has been on the newsstands seemingly forever, it was a 10-cent color comic book, primarily the handiwork of cartoonist-humorist Harvey Kurtzman, who wrote and designed every page during the publication's first four years. The first few issues featured broad send-ups of mass-entertainment genres (westerns, horror flicks, etc.), but gradually the contents shifted to burlesques of particular movies, comics, and--the year was 1952--radio shows, entitled "Superduperman," "Melvin of the Apes," "Dragged Net," and so forth. Kurtzman's mastery of the comics medium was a major element in the stories' effectiveness, and his humor was fresher and brasher than anything else in any medium; it became a major influence on successive generations of humorists, including the 1960s underground cartoonists and the writers of Saturday Night Live. After Kurtzman's departure, Mad was . . . different. The Mad Archives is a valuable reminder of just how gloriously mad it was. Each volume is 8x11, 224 full color pages, hardcover. ... $49.95 each.

Volume 1 reprints issues 1-6
Volume 2 reprints issues 7-12

Mad About the Fifties
Of all the recent collections assembled from the archives of MAD magazine, this volume might be the most interesting. It shows the beginnings of the magazine as a comic book, its transformation into a "slick" three years later in 1955, and its settling down into a familiar format under the stewardship of Al Feldstein. The early material shows quite clearly what the hubbub was all about: Harvey Kurtzman, Willie Elder, Wally Wood, and the rest parody comic characters with a zany zest that is infectious. This book boasts reproductions of MAD's comic book highlights, including "Starchie," "Superduperman," and "Batboy and Rubin." Many readers will remember these stories, if not from the first time around, then from the Ballantine paperback collections so ubiquitous in the 1960s and '70s. MAD About the Fifties shows MAD's tentative transformation into an American institution; this tentativeness, far from being a drawback, results in the only experimental period in the humor magazine's 45-year run (who knew that Stan Freberg, Bob and Ray, and Ernie Kovacs contributed?). Kurtzman's departure in 1956 brought in Al Feldstein, who would expand the magazine's appeal from the thousands to the millions. Purists are still debating whether this was a good idea or a sellout--MAD About the Fifties allows you to decide for yourself. Art by Wood, Elder, Kurtzman, Davis, Jaffee, Martin, and all the rest of the Usual Gang Of Idiots. MAD About the Fifties contains more of their gems; it deserves a space in any MAD reader's library. This second printing is 5x9, 256 pages, softcover. ... $12.99.

Mad About Comic Strips    From Andy Capp to Ziggy, no comic strip, classic or new, is safe from the Mad Magazine treatment. Containing 40 years' worth of Mad comic strip sendups, this collection features work by comic book notables, including Wallace Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Sergio Aragones, Russ Cooper, Will Elder and Bernie Krigstein, to name a few. The great artist Wood makes some of the parodies far more vibrant than the originals. Other takeoffs look so accurate that it's hard to believe the original strip artists didn't draw them. There's a particularly funny Poopeye and Mazola Oil story that features spoofs of a few of comics' greatest strongmen, and the story "Final Episodes of Peanuts You Never Saw" finally captures such events as Charlie Brown kicking the football and Marcie and Patty professing their love for Melissa Etheridge. Spoofing material that's already satirical is a delicate business, and most of these works are not only successful, but are downright hilarious. The parody works best when the artists use the bland daily comic strip format to savage another topic, as in "Bush Family Circus," which takes on both Bil Keane's strip and the presidential dynasty. The book features several full-color sections and looks terrific overall, succeeding as much as a tribute to the great comic strips of the past as a lampoon. 8½x11, square spine, 128 mostly color pages. ... $12.95