The Mad Archives, Vol. 1 by Wallace Wood

The Mad Archives, Vol. 1 Reviews

• 
  Drew Canole

  Exquisite artwork throughout - hit or miss on whether the story is interesting and/or funny. But overall I thought it was great and levels above most humour comic anthologies I've read.
  
  The original MAD was quite similar to the war and horror EC comics. The comic has 4 short 8 page stories drawn by some of the top talent in comics at the time. All the stories play on some classic tropes and crank everything up to 11. Lots of "chicken fat" in each panel with lots of little jokes in the text and background.
  
  Cover by Harvey Kurtzman who is also the editor - I believe he's like the Stan Lee of EC comics, helps with the story ideas and does the dialogue too. The art chores for each issue are split between Jack Davis, John Severin, Wallace Wood, and Bill Elder. Davis is maybe my favourite - but wow these 4 guys are all incredible.
  
  Issue 1
  Hoohah! (Jack Davis)
  Classic car breaks down outside of a haunted house trope.
  
  Blobs! (Wallace Wood)
  Science fiction story of a future Earth world where everyone is basically a baby because technology has completely taken over all of our tasks and civilization is controlled by a Master Monster Machine.
  
  Ganefs! (Bill Elder)
  Crime story with two goofy criminals (the dumb big guy and "smart" small guy)
  
  Varmint! (John Severin)
  Western story at a busy outback bar with a sharpshooter.
  
  Issue 2
  Hex (Jack Davis)
  one of the better stories about a baseball player who gets cursed by a witch. Incredible artwork.
  
• 
  Michael

  The art is beyond belief, absolutely outstanding. The scripts are ... I believe that they were revolutionary in the 50s, but reading them now is a real chore. I'm glad this book exists to preserve MAD's legacy, although it's not very readable today.
• 
  Aussiescribbler Aussiescribbler

  In the middle of my reading The Mad Archives, Vol. 1 I heard that Mad Magazine was ending publication. I hadn’t read the magazine since I was in my teens back in the 1970s, but it meant a lot to me back then. I became curious to read The Mad Archives after reading about the magazine’s founder
  Harvey Kurtzman in
  James Warren, Empire Of Monsters: The Man Behind Creepy, Vampirella, And Famous Monsters.
  
  It is fascinating to explore the beginnings of the Mad phenomena. The early stories are full of great comic artwork which captures a frantic anarchic energy. How well the humour stands up today varies. The icons of fifties pop culture are not the icons of today and so there isn’t quite the same impact from parodies of them. And sometimes the punchline of a story will seem obvious. Of course there are also some stereotypes which were common in the comedy of that time which are no longer a guilt-free source of chuckles. (They may still be a source of chuckles, only just not guilt free.)
  
  All in all, I had a great time with these stories, including some of the word-play heavy text-only stories. For me, the stories which work best are often those which are the most cynical, such as Superduperman! and the romance parody Flob Was a Slob! The volume also ends with a major highlight, Mad’s first movie parody Ping Pong, drawn by Will Elder who fills the page with crazy visual side jokes, including a helicopter tail blade which is chopping up the border of the frame. Here is the beginning of what would always be Mad’s strong suit, even if, at this stage, the character names are completely unrelated to those used in the movie and the movie’s stars are not caricatured.
• 
  EC Reader

  Mixed, brilliant, stupid, totally eye-popping from cover to cover. The first two issues are my favorites, especially "Blobs" by Wally Wood, with a story and artwork that has been ripped off by Pixar (Wall-E) and countless others, it's still groundbreaking and prescient. Jack Davis is on fire, starting with "Hoo-Ha", a goofy spooky story that still kinda delivers a chill. "Gookum" is almost as fun, with more sci-fi Wood craziness. "Superduperman", Wood again, from issue 4, is famously the story that inspired Alan Moore to write "The Watchmen". Moore also called MAD 'the greatest comic of all time', which you probably won't agree with based solely on the contents of this volume, because it's also got a lot of dated jokes, plain bad jokes, and Kurtzman was still figuring out what worked and had yet to fully cut loose. The later volumes do, but this is hardly an inauspicious beginning, and it's fascinating as a piece of vitally important history, and the coloring and paper really are perfect examples of the simple, powerful beauty of 4 color printed art.
• 
  Frank

  You can't go wrong here. MAD is as iconic as any comic ever created and it is second to none in the humor genre. The gags are aplenty but nothing stands out more than the legendary artwork and the brilliant coloring. I must admit that some of the 50s gags and humor were a little over (or under) my head but my ignorance doesn't make this any less timeless.
• 
  Dan

  Groundbreaking work that still feels surprisingly fresh so many years later.
• 
  Paul

  Years before Alfred E. Neuman reared his head, Mad (not yet a "Magazine") made its debut in 1952 as the first humorous title in the EC line. The brainchild of editor Harvey Kurtzman, Mad quickly found its voice and became a sensation, surviving the persecution of the comic industry in the mid-50s to become EC's sole publication.
  
  This must have been over-the-top, groundbreaking work in the 50s, a breath of relief from the slow, steady, subtle humor of the New Yorker or the staid comic strips of the day. But, unlike Kurtzman's serious work, it's tough to enjoy today outside of an admiration at the craft involved. It's not just a matter of old targets of parody; the spoofs include cultural mainstays like Superman and Tarzan. And it can still manage to evoke a chuckle at its sharper moments, like when "The Lone Stranger" miraculously disarms an attacking gang by precisely grazing their shoulders and trigger fingers. Overall, though, this hasn't aged particularly well.
  
  The book takes a few issues to find its footing, the first two issues containing stories not far off from the usual EC twist stories, only with goofier looking characters. But by the third issue, the incredibly skilled artists begin cramming in as many gags as they could manage. Any possible pun or background detail was fair game. Nevertheless, like so much of the book, the effort is easier to admire than enjoy.
  
  Time and again, the age of the material pulls you out of the story. EC was relatively progressive in their more serious books, but here they go for the cheap laugh whenever possible, and that includes the use of some lazy ethnic stereotypes. Flat-out racism isn't the basis for stories, but when African-savage and Eskimo stereotypes pop up on facing pages in a Dragnet spoof, it poisons your reading experience a bit. To his credit, in some cases Kurtzman is mocking others' horrible stereotyping, as in the character of Chop Chop Chop in the Blackhawk parody. But I had to know about the long-forgotten Blackhawk comic to get the joke. It's extremely difficult to properly mock others' usage of stereotyping without doing it yourself (most recently seen in 30 Rock's careful, but still somewhat flat, sendup of blackface), and Kurtzman doesn't quite pull it off.
  
  That said, the anything-goes attitude can be exhilarating, and the pages crackle with a manic energy. The running gags of men ogling over women, the calls of "Hoo-Hah", and the name Melvin wear pretty thin, but the pervading spirit is contagious. Mad would go on in the following few years to break a lot of ground, with
  innovative and
  eye-catching covers unlike anything else on the stands, but in the beginning, it was a real mixed bag.
• 
  Kaethe

  I knew MAD was old, but I didn't realize how old, nor that it had been publishing continuously. I think it'll be a hoot to see what it was like in the beginning.
  
  ***
  
  Almost disturbingly not funny. The art style is weird, the few women appearing are almost identical, whereas the men who seem to crowd each frame are extreme caricatures with exaggerated features. Seriously, it kind of looks like a scene with the mutants from Futurama. None of the stuff familiar to me from Mad in the 70s (or now) is present yet.
• 
  Ruz El

  Features the first 6 issues of the series. The art and colour look great and the book is pretty solid and seems to be of quality.
  
  As far as the content, it's okay. The first couple issues are a bit hit and miss, but once Kurtzman found his footing by issue 3 or 4, it gets dead solid. Which is not to say that here aren't some corny gags in the first few issues that wont make you laugh out loud. It's surprising how will it all holds up, 60 years later. Will Elder and Wally Woood really shine.
  
  So like everything published by EC, this one is a recommend.
• 
  Kyle Burley

  A lot of the humour is dated and corny but the art, from the likes of Wally Wood and Jack Davis, is still inspired. It's hard to imagine the impact MAD must have had when it was first released back in 1952 and the mixture of irreverent satire and outright juvenile silliness remains influential to this day. For what it's worth, the colour reproduction in these archive volumes is outstanding. It doesn't look too slick or digitally retouched.
• 
  Eric Bauman

  The MAD issues in this collection still hold up after 60+ years. Even though the style and targets in these issues is a lot different than those that appear in today's MAD, you can see the genesis of the modern MAD.
• 
  Edwin Vazquez

  Harvey Kurtzman is the man...
• 
  Erik

  The exaggerated art is the only thing remotely funny about this. Dumb parodies, corny jokes, and feels really dated.
• 
  Tom Landis

  This is by Harvey Kurtzman, not Jack Davis!