Mad #4

Credits:
Cover dated April/May 1953
Cover by Harvey Kurtzman

"Superduperman!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Flob Was A Slob!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Robin Hood!" - Art by John Severin/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Shadow!" - Art by Bill Elder/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

An average issue of Mad quality-wise, but it was the issue during which Mad started to become really popular, and started to hit its stride by doing parodies of other things from popular culture.

"Superduperman!" - A parody of Superman, the story stars Clark Bent, a miserable, emaciated man who is assistant to the copy boy. In love with reporter Lois Pain, Clark spends his life savings on a neckalce for her only for her to knock him aside, calling him a creep. Clark changes into his Superduperman persona, then has to battle Captain Marbles, a similar hulking presense who is trying to rob a safe. Superduperman manages to defeat Captain Marbles by getting him to punch himself in the face. Superduperman thinks Lois will be impressed with him now and reveals his hidden identiy to her, but she still thinks he is a creep and knocks him over.

"Flob Was A Slob!" - A young woman named Ramona Snarfle is engaged to her childhood sweethear, Sheldon, a rather baffoonish character who spends his time trying to catch a butterfly. The handsome Rackstraw Him appears and takes Ramona away with him. He shows her quite a good time at a variety of places, but she soon discovers that he is a crook, and when he tries to get her to sell racing forms she leaves him and returns to Sheldon. The story ends with Ramona in the present, where she has left Sheldon to sell racing forms.

"Robin Hood!" - A parody of Robin Hood, the story begins with two locals watching as the Sheriff of Nottingham passes by with a number of merchants. Robin Hood shows up and introduces his variety of merry men. They then pursue the merchants while our protagonists pursue Maid Marion. As Robin and his merry men are about to leave, our protagonists ask if they can provide them with some money since all they have is two cents. Robin Hood's merry men instead rob the men of the two cents and their clothing.

"Shadow!" - A woman named Marlo Pain shows up at a bar full of seedy looking characters, saying that she is the only one who knows the voice of the mysterious, invisible Shadowskeedeeboomboom. Shadow shows up, but due to him being invisible survives while all the men there end up killing one another. Margo and Shadow leave and Margo finds her life to be threatened. They eventually come upon a cabin connected to dynamite. Shadow convinces her to sit inside and he then pushes the trigger, killing her since she's the only one who recognizes his voice.

Mad #23

Credits:
Cover dated May 1955

"Gopo Gossum!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Scenes We'd Like to See!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Believe It or Don't!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"The Barefoot Nocountessa!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

One of the simplest covers of all time to an EC comic kicks off this issue of Mad, which was the final issue of Mad in comic form before it became a magazine with the next issue. EC's humor comics are still not my cup of tea, but it is by far the best of the 3 that I have reviewed thus far.

"Gopo Gossum!" - This story is a parody of Walt Kelly's Pogo strip. In it, the Gopop Gossum of the title visits some big city cousins and returns home to the woods with his fellow animal creatures, convinced that the animals have to join political parties to make it big time. The remaining pages of the story feature animal parodies of various politicians at the time (many of which are lost to me, since this comic was published almost 30 years before I was born), and all of the animals are blown up. In the final two panels it is revealed that the bit city cousins Gopo met were Disney characters and that they meant an event type of party, not political parties.

"Scenes We'd Like to See!" - This story features a series of typical movie scenes, which are then retold in more interesting and funny fashion. It begins with a romance scene, then also goes into a fencing scene, a battle at a fort with indians, an escape from Nazis and a hero about to get bumped off by some mobsters. While an interesting concept, a lot of this story reeks of laziness to me. For the first 7 pages, entire scenes are repeated in black and white with only the final panel being changed, making for quite a bit of space wasted. Things only get interesting with the final scene, which reduces the 15+ scene of a hero in mortal peril escaping as is the typical cliche, to a 2 panel scene in which he is immediately killed by the bad guy.

"Believe It or Don't!" - This is a short 3 page feature that features various hard to believe people, accomplishments, etc... For example, Stalin was born in the Bronx, the water in Niagara Falls does not fall, but rather travels up, and various others. My favorite is the South American Indian "Symbol of Death" which causes death if gazed upon within a year. After this brief explanation is says "Too bad if you looked".

"The Barefoot Nocountessa!" - This story is about the Barefoot Nocountessa of the title, a beautiful woman who always walks barefoot. The story is told by a Humphrey Bogart lookalike called Humphry Yogurt who is talking about her at her funeral. It features various anecdotes about her, such as a pair of rich men fighting over her, her falling in love with a stench ridden bum and various others. At the end of the story it is revealed that she was murdered due to her smelly feet.

Mad #5

Credits:
Cover dated June/July 1953
Cover by Bill Elder

"Outer Sanctum!" - Art by Bill Elder/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Black and Blue Hawks!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Miltie of the Mounties!" - Art by John Severin/Story by Harvey Kurtzman
"Kane Keen!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Harvey Kurtzman

Today I cover my first issue of Mad, EC's most famous publication. Elder's cover for the issue was the only one he did for EC. The insider front cover features a parody of the "EC Artist of the Issue" features that were appearing throughout EC's various publications at the time, covering publisher Bill Gaines. This fake biography stated he was a thief, peddled dope, worked around burlesque houses, couldn't read and other various things. The bio was put together by Gaines and others while editor Kurtzman was ill. What was thought initially to be just a funny joke ended up in quite the big controversy for EC with their wholesalers due to offending another publisher for whom parts of the biography were true. EC had to prepare an apology to the wholesalers as a result. Overall the bio is by far the most notable part of this issue. Only the first story is particularly good, at least story wise (art is generally strong throughout) and the other stories are generally uninteresting to me. Although I'll admit that the EC humor comics were always the genre of theirs I was least into.

"Outer Sanctum!" - This story initially takes place in a crypt where a character named Ramon
hosts the rest of the tale. In the Louisiana swamp a scientist works on a mixture to create
life, which he dumps into the swamp due to its bad smell. The mixture combines with the swamp
to form a trash-like monster called Heap. Heap robs a Bank for the scientist then falls in
love with a female garbage heap in the back. The scientist sets the female heap ablaze, which
enrages the Heap, causing it to destroy the shack they live in. It runs off, never to be seen
again, but sometimes during the full moon it can be found, with little heaps following it. Our
host, Ramon, reveals that the whole story was made up, but the Heap does show up. The controversies with this issue continue. The statement of "Nice Fat Errand Boy Wanted"
(presumbably to be eaten) was taken by the wholesalers to mean that he was wanted for sexual
perverse acts.

"Black and Blue Hawks!" - The Black and Blue Hawks head to the country of Panazonia upon
hearing from one of their colleagues whose plane crashes that there is a revolution there. Upon
arriving they encounter the leader of the revolution, a beautiful woman who tricks them and
steals their plane. The last remaining Blue Hawk (having ordered the others back to their
island) follows her and eventually makes it back to Black and Blue Hawk Island where its
revealed that the woman and the other Black and Blue Hawks were the revolutionaries.

"Miltie of the Mounties" - A series of mounties report to Chief Mountie, Scott Yardland.
Yardland receives orders from his superiors to capture the criminal Nanuk the Canuk and sends
Miltie the Mountie after him. Miltie initially starts following his own footprints in a circle,
but does come across the heavily covered Nanuk the Canuk whom he chases. Nanuk is revealed to be a woman by opening her coat, shocking Miltie enough so she can shoot him.  Not that great a story in my eyes, it takes a while to get going and I don't understand why Nanuk being a woman was supposed to be so shocking to Miltie like it was. A similar type ending was used in the first story of the Panic #1.

"Kane Keen! Private Eye" - Kane Keen of the title is a private eye hired by a beautiful woman
who claims that her uncle is in danger. Her uncle, Rollover Rover, is a retired vaudelville
actor who had an act with a talking dog, Shlep. Upon arriving at his mansion they find Rover
dead and Shlep missing. Keen is faced with a variety of suspects as well as a mysterious thug
who keeps warning him to keep off the case and hits him in the head. In the end the killer is
revealed to be Shlep, who was disguised as the butler. Shlep gets away however by taking
hostage of a dumb cop who came to the scene.