Off the Bookshelf: Mad Paperbacks ( What, Me Worry?)

A Jack Davis cover for the ages. Mindboggling. How many can you identify?

Redartz:  Ah, it is indeed. Hi folks! Previously in "Off the Bookshelf", we have discussed paperback collections of Peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes. There was another popular series of paperback reprints in our beloved Bronze age, often found on drug store and supermarket racks alongside those old Peanuts books. "Mad"; originally a comic book published by E.C. Comics and later a full-size magazine, has been an iconic part of popular culture for decades. Beginning in 1954, many of the humorous features from those publications were presented in collected book form.Originally reprinting material from the comic books, they soon carried the wacky, iconoclastic bombast from the magazines. 


And what incredible talent was represented here. Creators such as Don Martin, Antonio Prohias (Spy vs. Spy), Sergio Aragones, Jack Davis, Al Feldstein, Paul Coker Jr., Dave Berg and many others gained popular followings among the Mad readers, and found their work spotlighted in the paperbacks.

 Berg 's "Lighter Side of..." strips were among my favorites, finding innumerable foibles in modern society to puncture. Another of my faves were the tales of avian espionage that Prohias provided (I always rooted for the black spy). Those cartoons, the movie parodies, the political satires, the Madison Avenue jibes- all filled those pocket-size tomes with edgy fun (perhaps not edgy now, but back then it was). You could often find a couple of these books stashed among my comics on a family trip, or piled among the detritus in my school locker. They were a great bargain; you don't find that many laughs per page in many other books. And I loved the covers- frequently painted by Mad Magazine ace Norman Mingo, they found countless ways to beat us over the head with Alfred E. Neuman. 

 


 





















I give Mad a lot of credit for starting me off on the right (some would say wrong) foot. Long before I discovered Dr. Demento or Saturday Night Live, those Mad paperbacks showed me our culture in a slightly subversive, twisted mirror, and my head (thankfully) would never be the same.