The Bedside MAD

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Summary: Classic "MAD" parodies from the classic comic book years
Review: The original edition of "The Bedside MAD" was published in April 1959 by Signet Books. Originally Ballantine Books had started printing "MAD" paperbacks and published the first five, but Signet offered a better deal and Bill Gaines changed publishers. So this is the sixth book in the series of anniversary reprints of the early "MAD" paperbacks and explains the giant "ANNIVERSARY EDITION" banner running along the right border of the cover.

The title "The Bedside MAD" was a take off on the various "bedside readers" that were in vogue at the time and offers the first original cover art for a "MAD" paperback, done by illustrator Kelly Freas (compare with the Norman Mingo cover for the 1973 reissue on page xii). "MAD" has switched to being a magazine in 1959, but with two exceptions the material contained here is from the comic book period when it was created, written, and edited by Harvey Kurtzman. "Outer Sanctum!" is a Kurtzman classic from "MAD" #5 that manages to do a parody of both the radio thriller "Inner Sanctum" and all of the E.C. horror comics like "Tales from the Crypt." "The Lone Stranger Rides Again!" is, as the title indicates, a second look at "The Lone Ranger" from "MAD" #8 (cf. "MAD" #3).

There are some choice examples from some of the best artists in the "MAD" gang of usual idiots. Jack Davis does "Scenes We'd....Like to See!" and "Slow Motion," as well as the classic parody of "Hah! Noon!" from "MAD" #9, and a new take on Ernest Lawrence Thayer's poem "Casey at the Bat!" ("MAD" #6). Wallace Wood does "The Cane Mutiny" from "MAD" #19 (with "Captain Kweeg"). Bill Elder chips in with art on "Medical" ("MAD" #28), "Restaurant" ("MAD" #16), and the Kurtzman written "Robinson Crusoe!" ("MAD" #13).

All of these bits predate the point in my life when I started reading and enjoying the sick humor offered by "MAD," but if your choice is going back and looking at the old stuff or trying to make your way through the new stuff, then I say turn your back on the present and look backwards, boys and girls, to when "MAD" was a comic book and not a magazine. There are so many classic bits here that when I picked up the collected E.C. library I went with the option for getting the "MAD" volumes in color. That was not a mistake.