Number 183

Imitation Madness

In my opinion the best story in Mad comics not done by one of the Big Three, Wood, Davis and Elder, is "Plastic Sam," by Russ Heath in Mad #14. Heath, mostly known for his illustrative approach, was freelancing from his regular gig at Atlas Comics, working for Stan Lee.

I think he really liked the idea of the humor comics, because he approached "Plastic Sam" by tightening up and inking Kurtzman's layout. At Atlas, he did the story I'm posting here, "The Wild Blue Yonderrrr," from Crazy #3, in an ersatz Bill Elder/Wally Wood style, with lots of jokes in each of the panels. I like puns and wordplay so I enjoy them, although overall the story is typical Mad imitation; without Kurtzman it's mostly nonsense, rather than satire.

You've got to give companies that went after Mad's popularity credit for trying. Try is all they could do. None of them succeeded, which is why they're obscure and Kurtzman's Mad is still revered.

Heath, who was born in 1926, had a great career at Atlas, turning out Westerns like Kid Colt, Outlaw. He also created some memorable science fiction and horror stories. From there Heath went to DC, where he made his mark in war comics, Sea Devils, et al. All-in-all, a remarkable career by a remarkable artist.

In his humor work Heath liked to insert a self-caricature as part of his signature, as he did in "The Wild Blue Yonderrr."

I've always admired the comic book artists who, when the going was the toughest during the 1950s, still signed their work.

I've been researching what could have inspired "The Wild Blue Yonderrr," and haven't found it. I assume it was a movie, maybe British, about breaking the sound barrier, but can't find references to it in any of my standard resources. If you know please clue me in.

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Number 170


The Earlier Side of Dave Berg


When cartoonist David Berg died at age 81 in 2002, he had drawn for Mad for over 40 years, appearing in over 350 issues. His wry observations about everyday life, "The Lighter Side" reflected his own life.

Before he worked for Mad Berg was a comic book cartoonist, contributing to different publishers over the years. I have two stories here from 1954, a Mad Comics-styled satire and an Archie-clone.

"King Arthur and His Squares Around the Round Table" appeared in Atlas Comics' Crazy #2, and the Merton story, "A Heck Of A Hair-do!" is from Meet Merton #3, published by Toby Comics.

I'm also posting a scan of the printed cover of Meet Merton #3, and a scan of the original art I found on the Internet. This will be kind of a test, fans…see if you can spot the differences between the original and printed versions of the cover illustration . Click on the pictures for full-size images.
 

Berg had a great pin-up style. He could draw really cute chicks! Marcia from the Merton strip is vivacious and pretty, and unlike the stupid guys in her life, I can appreciate her Italian hair-do. I appreciate everything else about her, too. The Merton story was aimed at pre-pubescent kids, but even they might've wondered why Merton isn't shown as being horny. I mean, two teenagers, a tunnel of love, a beautiful girl…and he brings garlic? I don't know if Berg wrote his own story, here, but he showed with his Mad output that he was more than capable.

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Number 137

The Bastard Children of Harvey Kurtzman

Harvey Kurtzman is one of my Personal Pantheon of Comic Art Gods.* He is one of a very small group of great cartoon art geniuses who make me laugh.

By creating Mad in 1952, and having it become one of the hippest and funniest comic books ever, he unleashed the unwanted children of success: the untalented imitators.

Anyone who loved Mad would know in an instant these lackluster imitations were not Mad. Although they were drawn by talented artists (for the most part), they were written and edited mostly by people who just didn't get what it was that made Mad great. They looked all all the surface stuff, like the little funny signs and bric-a-brac of the individual panels, the eye candy that Mad readers looked for. They might not have known that Harvey's stories were carefully thought out, worked out layer upon layer, and given to the artists with careful instructions to do it like Harvey intended. Woe unto those who didn't.The thing was, the imitators were giving the readers what they expected from 99% of the comics of the era: pale shadows of the greats, just more stuff pumped out to fill the newsstands, to keep the distribution chain going. It shouldn't be a surprise that Timely/Atlas gave readers two or three Mad imitations, because the whole company philosophy was to copy whatever was possible after someone else had blazed the trail.
Even EC Comics came out with an imitation of Mad, edited by Al Feldstein, who would go on to make Mad Magazine a major publishing success after Kurtzman's departure. But even the officially sanctioned imitation, Panic, using the same artists as Mad, couldn't match Mad in its originality or sales.Mad was as Kurtzman was, true original comic art genius.

All of these Mad imitators came out in 1953 and 1954. I give credit to Ross Andru and Mike Esposito for making the cover of Get Lost! #1 look like a Kurtzman cover, and also to the Charlton Eh! cover for making an obscene description of female anatomy into a cover. But other than that, these imitations are so pale compared to the original that they are just footnotes in comic book history.
Click on pictures for full-size images.

*Pappy's Personal Pantheon of Comic Art Gods are Harvey Kurtzman, Carl Barks, Walt Kelly, Charles Schulz and Robert Crumb.

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