The MAD Readers Ride Again!

The Mad Reader is one of those truly important books. EC Comics made a big splash in the heyday of comics, both critically and financially. So much so, that the furor around them eventually caused them to disappear from the comic racks. But MAD survived, and in fact thrived for decades after becoming a cultural touchstone for millions of kids trying to find a way to interpret adult society. Soon after its sales success in the early 50's, Ballantine Books stepped forward to bring the distinctive humor brand to a broader audience in the first paperback comic book reprint, The Mad Reader. The Mad Reader, first published in 1954 went through many editions and spawned many subsequent collections. It was the perfect fusion of the wildness of MAD with the surge of paperbacks which came to dominate book sales in the decade. 

Some years ago, IBooks under the direction of the late Byron Preiss returned these vintage classics to the market in handsome and faithful reproductions. As you can see, the leering mug of Alfred P. Neuman guarantees MAD-level quality. In point of fact, this was the first time that Alfred's famous puss ever graced a MAD publication, but as we all know it be far from the last. IBooks went on quickly to publish other of the 50's MAD paperbacks. There are later volumes in this esteemed series, but these five from Ballantine Books (MAD moved to Signet with the sixth volume) are the core upon which the long MAD paperback tradition lives. It's exceedingly neat to have most of these clever reproductions in my sweaty mitts. I've seen and read many of the stories in more lustrous volumes, yet the crazy way they are presented in these volumes makes them oddly fresh. 

IBooks made reprints of all the volumes above which originally were published from 1954 to 1961.  (I think I have the order right, but please correct me if I got it wrong.) MAD was in its heyday and seemed indestructible until it fell on hard times in recent years following the demise of the publisher Bill Gaines. There is sure no shortage of MAD paperbacks out there, ninety -three to be exact. Check out this link to the MAD Museum to get a look at the ones IBooks never got a chance reprint. 

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Havoc Is The Headmen!

I don't know that it ever got weirder in superhero comics than when the Defenders were battling the bizarre and utterly dangerous Headmen.

Larry Lieber and Vince Colletta

The seventh issue of Weird Wonder Tales was a book that was on my must-find and must-buy list for a few years after I learned that in those zesty reprint pages the vintage tales which spawned the notorious Headmen, of Defenders fame, first showed up together. It was this particular comic, which according to Marvel lore, inspired Steve Gerber to take a trio of the characters and fabricate a gang of opponents for his Non-Team.

The trio (Dr.Arthur Nagan, Chondu the Mystic, and Dr.Jerry Morgan) were joined by Ruby Thursday a few issues after their debut and the Headmen were complete. This gang of completely oddball but still dangerous personalities first battled the Defenders in issue twenty-one. The Headmen apparently too strange to feature on the cover.

Gil Kane and Klaus Janson

The original trio first showed their...ahem...heads in the following Atlas classics.

(Dr. Jerry Nagan - Gorilla Man)

(Chondu the Mystic)

(Dr. Jerry Morgan - Shrunken Bones)

The Headmen were wildly entertaining, bizarre and compelling. I miss villainy of this truly weird type, and I find from time to time I miss the offbeat writing of Steve Gerber.

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Amazing X-Ray Vision!

I now have super-powers thanks to the generosity of my two daughters and the wonderful present they gave a few years ago. I love my new set of X-Ray Spex [sic] which makes a man to be dealt with. 

This new ability to see through things, especially the garments of shapely, beautiful women (gasp) makes me darn near delirious with anticipation of wandering the streets and discovering a whole new world.

What do you mean it's an illusion? What do you mean that I really cannot penetrate the privacy of beautiful dames with my lusty glare? What do you mean I'm a perverted old fart for even wanting to do so? I am so disappointed!

But at least I'll look exceptionally cool.

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Behold...The Vision!

(The dates for 1975 and 2025 are identical.)

Artificial life has long been a staple of imaginative fiction. Robots populate hundreds if not thousands of science fiction stories, both those in print and on the screen. The most famous of these, Adam Link created by "Eando Binder", had many a story and then has been adapted to comics several times and to the small screen a few. Bozo the Iron Man was created in the Golden Age. And the most successful of the artificial lifeforms must've been The Human Torch from Timely, who alongside The Sub-Mariner and Captain America formed the focus of the company's output. 

The first artificial man who made a strong impression on me is a close call between DC's Red Tornado (more about him tomorrow) and Marvel's The Vision. When the Vision emerged from the shadows in the pages of The Avengers #57 it rocked my world more than a tiny bit. I'd been an Avengers fan for no more than year, and solidly so since the arrival of the Black Panther. But this character, with a grim red face and a spectacular array of powers was simply magnetic. 

He was yet another revised revival from Marvel's Golden Age Timely days like Ka-Zar, the Black Knight, and others. That Vision had been a creation of the famous Simon and Kirby team. 

This Vision was the perfect fusion of a character and an artist as no one has ever drawn The Vision as well as "Big" John Buscema. In a couple of issues of The Avengers we see The Vision attack the team and by the end become a member, the first original character the book had seen do so. And despite a cold demeanor he became in many ways the heart of the title with his concerns and challenges often form the basis for stories. The fact that he was fashioned by Ultron-5, an Avengers foe who himself had been built by the always troubled Hank Pym didn't hurt. Here was a character whose very existence drilled to the epicenter of the team. 

Eventually we'd see The Vision battle to become "normal" and he would fall in love and marry and even have children of a sort. He like so many other heroes has become a part of the Marvel movie universe. Every step toward this typicality robbed him of some of his mystique, a mystique birthed from the very first panel of his existence in print. John Byrne attempted to bring back that weirdness when he effectively rebooted the Vision in West Coast Avengers. Where the Vision is at these days, is anyone's guess. 

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