Mad Magazine #2

I’m using Absolutely MAD Magazine - 50+ Years to read and comment on every issue of Mad Magazine published between 1952 and 2005. You can track the progress at this link.

Mad #2 – you have GOT to love that cover. I laughed out loud when it first popped up on my screen, the idea of the prototypical horror comic narrator going to a baseball game and inadvertently jinxing the players is comedy gold. The opening story (illustrated by Jack Davis although he’s credited as “Melvin Davis”) is the horror/baseball hybrid alluded to on the cover, appropriately titled “Hex!” I guess I should say something about “Melvin” since it seems to be a running gag in early Mad mags. All four stories in Mad #1 (as well as the cover) featured a protagonist or antagonist called Melvin. In issue 2, all of the artists are credited under an assumed name “Melvin” except for John Severin who, for some reason, is not credited at all. In two of the four stories featured in issue 2 the protagonist is named Melvin but the name doesn’t seem to appear in the other two stories. I really don’t have a point, listing all of the times a Melvin appears in Mad, but I doubt Harvey Kurtzman had a point using “Melvin” all of the time, either. It’s just Mad setting the standard for a touch of irrelevance in all of their satire and I dig it.

Anyway, back to “Hex!” The story itself has a bit more to it than the cover suggests; our hero makes a deal to marry the woman with the evil eye in exchange for a pennant. Ironically, the team our hero plays for is obviously modeled after the Red Sox, a team that knew a thing-or-two about hexes. I couldn’t help but laugh as the fabled Curse of the Bambino made way for the Curse of the Woman with the Evil Eye. I’m not sure how far back talk of The Curse went but I know it wasn’t a pop-culture phenomenon until the late-80s/early-90s. Unintentional historical relevance aside, “Hex!” was a funny tale with some fantastic visual gags, especially the supernatural forces acting on the baseball once the pact was sealed.

The second tale was “Melvin!” with art from the uncredited John Severin. “Melvin!” is a Tarzan spoof with a FANTASTIC gag that has Tarzan calling his jungle buddies for help that’s followed by a stampede of dogs, pigs, dinosaurs, dodo birds, whales, and other members of the animal kingdom.

There are two short stories in this issue, just like the first one. The first one is pulp detective homage and the second is a rather funny sci-fi piece about a boy who transmits radio waves from his teeth.

Kurtzman and Wally Wood’s (credited as Melvin Wood) sci-fi spoof “Gookum!” was up next. I didn’t like it as much as the sci-fi story from issue one but it’s still a humorous story about jello waking up every five-hundred years and taking over the world. Plus, you know, it’s Wally Wood.

Will Elder (credited as Melvin Elder) brings the best story of the issue, the crime-spoof “Mole!” The story of man that can use anything to dig his way out of prison but he gets caught by the police the moment he pops out of the ground. Great gags, I especially love the way Melvin Mole only says “Dig” and various textbook crime lines like “John Law” and “Coppers won’t put me in jail!”

Labels: mad_magazine, review

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