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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Strangers On A Train!

"Times call for measures" goes the proverb. I rarely reprint a complete story here at the Dojo and when I have done so it's either in public domain or from some impossible-to-find fanzine. I'm putting forth one of comicdom's most famous stories today, one from EC Comics. Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein co-wrote and Bernard Krigstein drew it. The time was 1955 and the menace of Adolph Hitler was barely a decade in the past, nearly as long as America has been contending shamefully with its most recent "leader". I'd imagine most who visit this blog have read "Master Race", one of the most powerful and well-crafted stories ever published in the format. Krigstein asked for more time and more space to tell this story and that ended up delaying its publication for a year. If you have read it, I'd recommend it's not a bad time to revisit it, and if by chance you've never encountered the story, then by all means don't let my meanderings stop you for another second. 

See you on the other side. 

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.  

Under the dynamic Jack Davis cover is a story which elegantly and (no pun intended) masterfully guides the reader through a frightening tale of an evil man who meets a justice of a sort at long last. Krigtstein's storytelling, his control of time and space and his fidelity to keeping the reader's eyes exactly where he wants them, makes "Master Race" a compelling eight-page read. Apparently, it began as a typical six-page EC yarn, but Krigstein wanted a few more pages to tell this important tale properly and adding those two pages caused a deadline to be missed and a delay of a year before the public was able to encounter this response to the Nazi menace which defined the 20th century. 

I own this story scuds of times. It gets included in nearly any EC anthology because of its quality. And as we've learned to our chagrin, it's terrible message never seems to go out of date. Below are just some of the tomes in which "Master Race" appears. These are just the ones I own. 

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The Starr Mysteries - Seduction Of The Innocent!

Seduction of the Innocent is the third book in the Jack and Maggie Starr mystery trilogy by Max Allan Collins. This book was published by Hard Case Crime in 2013. The series first two installments had been published in 2007 and 2008 by Berkley Prime Crime, a division of Penguin Books, but that publisher had decided against doing the third and at this time final volume. So, it's real pleasure to see this final book, perhaps the best of the three. The late Glen Orbik's cover is a real stunner, echoing the most memorable of vintage 50's comics covers.

(Dr.Frederic Wertham)

The story is set in 1954 and concerns itself with a notorious psychologist cum social crusader named "Dr. Werner Frederick" whose book Ravage the Lambs sets out to reveal the lascivious nature of comic books and create a public furor about same. Of course, the Starr Syndicate, headed by former stripper Maggie Starr and her stepson Jack Starr care a great deal about this effort as it will directly impact their business.

(Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein)

So, when E.F. (Educational Funnies) Comics honchos "Bob Price" and "Hal Feldman" seek to face down the critic, it becomes a real problem for comics when Price's testimony before a Congressional commission becomes a debacle. Price ends up embarrassed and threatens to kill Dr. Frederic.

(Al Williamson)

Also invested in countering Frederic is hot-headed artist "Will Allsion" who also threatens the pop psychologist on television. That becomes a particularly dicey problem when Frederic actually does end up dead under very mysterious circumstances.

(Charles Biro - the one with the monkey)

Maggie asks Jack to investigate, and he does. Among the many folks he interviews are Price and Feldman, but also editor of Levinson Comics "Charley Bardwell" who is a tough mug famous for his pranks and drinking as well as his pet monkey, which even gets into the comics he published. 

(Bob Wood)

Bardwell's partner "Pete Pine" is an even more notorious drunk, a man who becomes quite violent when he's had too much booze.

(Tarpe Mills)

Jack runs into a great deal of trouble when he finds Pine at the apartment of "Lyla Lamont", a darkly beautiful comic artist who has a wild reputation for enjoying life in all its many forms.

The chase around NYC in search of a killer is a snappy and finely paced affair. Because this story centered around a group of comics folks already close to the criminality in some instances, it seems to have a more noir atmosphere than the previous volumes, or maybe the lurid details are just naturally part of this at times most pungent tale. The action is rousing in this one, both of the amorous and pugilistic variety.

As always Terry Beatty supplies some beautiful illustrations for this story, his style very reminiscent of the great Johhny Craig, is especially apt in this volume.

This was a great send off for the series. It seems to me there are a goodly number of stories which could be yet told from the shadowy world of comics, but Collins said that this volume concluded his plans for Jack and Maggie.

If you can find them, I highly recommend these three books. They are filled with wonderful ambience and details from 1950's New York City. Any comics fan will find them fascinating, and any mystery fan will find them fulfilling.

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