World Famous Comics: Mad Art : A Visual Celebration of the Art of Mad Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It
Mad Art : A Visual Celebration of the Art of Mad Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It
By: Mark Evanier Publisher: Watson-Guptill Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Watson-Guptill Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: January 30, 2003
Product Description: The year 2002 marks the 50th anniversary of MAD Magazine, America's longest-running periodical of humor and satire. Throughout its long history, one of the most immediate, defining, and influential aspects of MAD has been its unique art; the magazine is a treasury of illustrated humor. MAD Art is a hilarious look at five decades of America's premiere showcase for parody, satire, and wit. All of MAD's "Usual Gang of Idiots" are represented, beginning with Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder and continuing on through more recent Idiots like Richard Williams and Hermann Mejia. MAD fans will find fascinating one-on-one discussions with veteran MAD artists about their favorite pieces, stylistic influences, and the references they used in creating their art. Also included are quotes from artists about each other's work, like Sam Viviano's comments on Mort Drucker, Tom Bunk's conversation about Basil Wolverton, and many more. MAD's writers are essential to its success-and readers will discover captivating personal interviews with the writers who helped create the side-splitting text accompanying the illustrations. There is also a section on the talented writer/artists, such as Al Jaffee, John Caldwell, and Sergio AragonŽs, who write as well as illustrate their own material. Finally, this authorized guide through MAD history includes a treasury of MAD's infamous advertising parodies; samples of classic cover and interior art; and dozens of rare and never-before-seen preliminary sketches, photos, and much more. The quintessential reference for every devoted MAD fanatic!
A celebration of the artists who made MAD what it was (is) The title of "MAD Art" is a nice, simple title, achieving a sense of balance by consisting of a pair of three letter words, but it is a bit off target. Even when you through in the subtitle--"A Visual Celebration of the Art of 'MAD' Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It"--we are still off the beam a bit, because what Mark Evanier has compiled here is a tribute to the specific artists who made "MAD" magazine the cultural icon it has been ever since I was a kid (and a little bit earlier than that as well). Evanier, a former assistant to the legendary Jack Kirby has written comic books (including "Groo the Wanderer" with "MAD" artist Sergio Aragones) as well as becoming a historian on the subject of cartooning, so there is a sense of scholarship to this effort. Those who comes to this rather thick trade paperback with expectations of reading some choice movie parodies and other familiar "MAD" pieces are going to be disappointed, because this is not that type of "MAD" collection.
Evanier uses a double chronology for "MAD Art," with the chapters detailing the general process by which artists join the "MAD" gang of idiots and end up producing their mini-comic masterpieces in discrete stages, while each chapter provides profiles of over five dozen artists with examples of their work, from the infamous advertising parodies, and classic front (and black) covers to the interior art, including dozens of rare and previously unseen preliminary sketches and photographs. That means the first chapter, representing the fabled time when "MAD" was a E.C. comic book, looks at the legendary artist Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, John Severin, and Wallace Wood. There is certainly something to be said for any list of artists that end up with Wally Wood being on the bottom. Kurtzman gets special credit for being the writer-editor and occasional artist for the all 23 of the comic book issues and the first five of "MAD" as a magazine, while Davis is the premier caricature artist of our time.
With each chapter revealing another wave of fan favorites, you get a sense for how the "MAD" stable of artists was created. The second stage sees Dave Berg, Bob Clarke, Mort Drucker, Frank Kelly Freas, Don Martin, and Norman Mingo being added to the ranks, while chapter three looks at Sergio Aragones, Paul Coker Jr., Harry North, Antonio Prohias, Jack Rickard, and Angelo Torres. These are the artists that defined "MAD" when I was a mere lad, and even if you do not recognize the name, you will recognize the artwork (I actually made it almost all the way to 2004 before I realized that Antonio Prohias did all the Spy vs. Spy bits when I was a kid).
However, after that point we are up to the next generation of "MAD" artists, which means those who have been working on the magazine since I moved on up to "The National Lampoon" and then abandoned written satire for weekly doses of "Saturday Night Live." So Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Don "Duck" Edwing, Sam Viviano, Drew Friedman, and Roberto Parada were all news to me. But, to be fair, how many people have actually been reading "MAD" magazine for a half-century? If the younger generation gets introduced to Harvey Kurtzman, then that justifies this entire 304-page book with its black-and-white illustrations and two 16-page color sections. As for me, my favorite of the "new" artists is Richard Williams, with his updating of Norman Rockwell for the 90's (The cast of the first "Survivor" doing the Thanksgiving dinner "Freedom From Want" bit).
For those who are interested in finding out about the favorite pieces, stylistic influence, and references the veteran "MAD" contributors used to create their art, "MAD Art" is going to be a treat. If it tries the patience, not to mention the memory, of those who have no clue who "Flesh Garden" and the "Lone Stranger" are parodies of, then that is their problem. It is about time somebody took the artists of "MAD" magazine seriously.
All I Need To Know About The Sixties I Learned From MAD! What a rush of nostalgia this compilation of MAD art brings back! I first started reading MAD as a late pre-teen, in the early Seventies. As I collected issues, I came into possession of some older copies, from which I got my first impressions of the lately concluded Sixties. The early MAD, freshly spawned from EC Comics back when William Gaines had a buzzcut, didn't interest me. But once he let his hair down and assembled his famous Usual Gang Of Idiots, the resulting humor and satire was a surefire hit with smart-alecky adolescent boys like me.
This collection presents a couple of pages of biography on each artist, along with a few panels of their work. I remembered most all of them from my era, but some were rediscoveries for me. Sergio Aragones, Jack Davis, Paul Coker, Jr., Al Jaffee with his goony inventions, Dave Berg--to name them is to summon to mind a favorite riff in the greatest cartooning ensemble ever assembled. Possibly the most poignant was the sad case of Don Martin, who drew those jug-headed characters in those "One Fine Day" episodes. Through illness and unspecified other problems, he was forced into an unwanted collaboration with the equally talented Duck Edwing, and then decamped altogether to an imitator, before passing away not too long ago.
If you are not familiar with MAD, then you certainly can't be expected to have all these fond memories. The social satire is dated in a retrospective like this, too. But coming to the collection cold, you'll still find something to chuckle at, surely. With so much talent on display, it'd be impossible not to.
Artist only please???? I liked this book in the sense that it was a Mad sampler. I got to see art by old friends (I have been into Mad since the early 1970s) but I don't know if a novice researcher would find this book as good. There are short biographical sketches of all involved.
The best history of Mad was The Mad World Of Bill Gaines which is sadly out of print for decades now.
Also while I know that the title is Mad Art this book lacks for not talking of the writers of Mad.
too small to read I could not believe that a book with such obvious interest to many would be printed in the form it was. The print is so small in the cartoons that have been reproduced that one needs a magnifying glass to read.
And I am not exagerrating. I would rate this book as a 5 if it were not published with such unreadable print.
The Tepid Mad Everyone has nostalgic affection for what Mad once was, and the art generated for it in its heyday has been endlessly recycled. The names Davis, Coker, Drucker, Wood, and others are legendary. The selections for this book are nice, but the reproductions are tiny. The color section is printed in dull, brownish colors, with no chronological order or comment. There is exactly one rough preliminary sketch (from Dave Berg) to give any insight into the process.
The writing is perky and lightweight, like a testamonial speech for a retiring employee, with a little biographical information, where he was schooled, what a gifted cartoonist, how repected by his peers, what a funny guy, etc. Here and there are hints at the real pressures that must have come into play in the production of the magazine, but the fluff piece mentality always wins out, and the real story is glossed over with well-worn Madisms like, "...mainly because, (insert quip here)...!" and other breezy, hand-me-down phrases. With no glimpse into the creative life behind the vacant gaze of Alfred E. Neuman, you might as well just buy a reprint of the actual magazine from the days when it used to parody superficial stuff like this book. I would suggest Mad about the Sixties (or Seventies).
The only interesting thing about "Mad Art" is its inclusion of the newer artists who have appeared since most of us stopped reading Mad. They are technically very good (if uninspired), and it's important to see what's being done today, even though Mad hasn't been funny for a decade and a half.
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