Mad Archives, The: Volume 1 - Issues 1-6 (Dc Archive Editions)

Collects the original MAD comic book series conceived of by Harvey Kurtzman, featuring characters such as Superduperman, Melvin of the Apes, the Lone Stranger, Miltie of the Mounties, and Teddy and the Pirates.

From Booklist

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, the first of four volumes collecting the entire comic-book run of Mad, is a valuable reminder of just how gloriously mad it was. Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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