Mad Art : A Visual Celebration of the Art of Mad Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It

Book Description

The year 2002 marks the 50th anniversary of MAD Magazine, America's longest-running periodical of humor and satire. Throughout its long history, one of the most immediate, defining, and influential aspects of MAD has been its unique art; the magazine is a treasury of illustrated humor. MAD Art is a hilarious look at five decades of America's premiere showcase for parody, satire, and wit. All of MAD's "Usual Gang of Idiots" are represented, beginning with Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder and continuing on through more recent Idiots like Richard Williams and Hermann Mejia. MAD fans will find fascinating one-on-one discussions with veteran MAD artists about their favorite pieces, stylistic influences, and the references they used in creating their art. Also included are quotes from artists about each other's work, like Sam Viviano's comments on Mort Drucker, Tom Bunk's conversation about Basil Wolverton, and many more. MAD's writers are essential to its success-and readers will discover captivating personal interviews with the writers who helped create the side-splitting text accompanying the illustrations. There is also a section on the talented writer/artists, such as Al Jaffee, John Caldwell, and Sergio AragonŽs, who write as well as illustrate their own material. Finally, this authorized guide through MAD history includes a treasury of MAD's infamous advertising parodies; samples of classic cover and interior art; and dozens of rare and never-before-seen preliminary sketches, photos, and much more. The quintessential reference for every devoted MAD fanatic!

Customer Reviews:

A celebration of the artists who made MAD what it was (is).......2003-12-27

The title of "MAD Art" is a nice, simple title, achieving a sense of balance by consisting of a pair of three letter words, but it is a bit off target. Even when you through in the subtitle--"A Visual Celebration of the Art of 'MAD' Magazine and the Idiots Who Create It"--we are still off the beam a bit, because what Mark Evanier has compiled here is a tribute to the specific artists who made "MAD" magazine the cultural icon it has been ever since I was a kid (and a little bit earlier than that as well). Evanier, a former assistant to the legendary Jack Kirby has written comic books (including "Groo the Wanderer" with "MAD" artist Sergio Aragones) as well as becoming a historian on the subject of cartooning, so there is a sense of scholarship to this effort. Those who comes to this rather thick trade paperback with expectations of reading some choice movie parodies and other familiar "MAD" pieces are going to be disappointed, because this is not that type of "MAD" collection.

Evanier uses a double chronology for "MAD Art," with the chapters detailing the general process by which artists join the "MAD" gang of idiots and end up producing their mini-comic masterpieces in discrete stages, while each chapter provides profiles of over five dozen artists with examples of their work, from the infamous advertising parodies, and classic front (and black) covers to the interior art, including dozens of rare and previously unseen preliminary sketches and photographs. That means the first chapter, representing the fabled time when "MAD" was a E.C. comic book, looks at the legendary artist Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, John Severin, and Wallace Wood. There is certainly something to be said for any list of artists that end up with Wally Wood being on the bottom. Kurtzman gets special credit for being the writer-editor and occasional artist for the all 23 of the comic book issues and the first five of "MAD" as a magazine, while Davis is the premier caricature artist of our time.

With each chapter revealing another wave of fan favorites, you get a sense for how the "MAD" stable of artists was created. The second stage sees Dave Berg, Bob Clarke, Mort Drucker, Frank Kelly Freas, Don Martin, and Norman Mingo being added to the ranks, while chapter three looks at Sergio Aragones, Paul Coker Jr., Harry North, Antonio Prohias, Jack Rickard, and Angelo Torres. These are the artists that defined "MAD" when I was a mere lad, and even if you do not recognize the name, you will recognize the artwork (I actually made it almost all the way to 2004 before I realized that Antonio Prohias did all the Spy vs. Spy bits when I was a kid).

However, after that point we are up to the next generation of "MAD" artists, which means those who have been working on the magazine since I moved on up to "The National Lampoon" and then abandoned written satire for weekly doses of "Saturday Night Live." So Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Don "Duck" Edwing, Sam Viviano, Drew Friedman, and Roberto Parada were all news to me. But, to be fair, how many people have actually been reading "MAD" magazine for a half-century? If the younger generation gets introduced to Harvey Kurtzman, then that justifies this entire 304-page book with its black-and-white illustrations and two 16-page color sections. As for me, my favorite of the "new" artists is Richard Williams, with his updating of Norman Rockwell for the 90's (The cast of the first "Survivor" doing the Thanksgiving dinner "Freedom From Want" bit).

For those who are interested in finding out about the favorite pieces, stylistic influence, and references the veteran "MAD" contributors used to create their art, "MAD Art" is going to be a treat. If it tries the patience, not to mention the memory, of those who have no clue who "Flesh Garden" and the "Lone Stranger" are parodies of, then that is their problem. It is about time somebody took the artists of "MAD" magazine seriously.

All I Need To Know About The Sixties I Learned From MAD!.......2003-11-21

What a rush of nostalgia this compilation of MAD art brings back! I first started reading MAD as a late pre-teen, in the early Seventies. As I collected issues, I came into possession of some older copies, from which I got my first impressions of the lately concluded Sixties. The early MAD, freshly spawned from EC Comics back when William Gaines had a buzzcut, didn't interest me. But once he let his hair down and assembled his famous Usual Gang Of Idiots, the resulting humor and satire was a surefire hit with smart-alecky adolescent boys like me.

This collection presents a couple of pages of biography on each artist, along with a few panels of their work. I remembered most all of them from my era, but some were rediscoveries for me. Sergio Aragones, Jack Davis, Paul Coker, Jr., Al Jaffee with his goony inventions, Dave Berg--to name them is to summon to mind a favorite riff in the greatest cartooning ensemble ever assembled. Possibly the most poignant was the sad case of Don Martin, who drew those jug-headed characters in those "One Fine Day" episodes. Through illness and unspecified other problems, he was forced into an unwanted collaboration with the equally talented Duck Edwing, and then decamped altogether to an imitator, before passing away not too long ago.

If you are not familiar with MAD, then you certainly can't be expected to have all these fond memories. The social satire is dated in a retrospective like this, too. But coming to the collection cold, you'll still find something to chuckle at, surely. With so much talent on display, it'd be impossible not to.

Artist only please????.......2003-11-02

I liked this book in the sense that it was a Mad sampler. I got to see art by old friends (I have been into Mad since the early 1970s) but I don't know if a novice researcher would find this book as good. There are short biographical sketches of all involved.

The best history of Mad was The Mad World Of Bill Gaines which is sadly out of print for decades now.

Also while I know that the title is Mad Art this book lacks for not talking of the writers of Mad.

too small to read.......2003-10-15

I could not believe that a book with such obvious
interest to many would be printed in the form it was.
The print is so small in the cartoons that have been
reproduced that one needs a magnifying glass to read.

And I am not exagerrating. I would rate this book
as a 5 if it were not published with such unreadable print.

The Tepid Mad.......2003-07-05

Everyone has nostalgic affection for what Mad once was, and the art generated for it in its heyday has been endlessly recycled. The selections for this book are nice, but the reproductions are tiny. There are relatively few of the gorgeous full color paintings that graced its pages in the '50s and '60s, and no roughs or preliminary sketches to give any insight into the process.

The writing is perky and lightweight, like a testamonial speech for a retiring employee, with a little biographical information on each artist, where he was schooled, what a gifted cartoonist, how respected by his peers, what a funny guy, etc. Here and there are hints at the pressures that must have come into play in the production of the magazine, but propriety and niceness always win out, and the real story is glossed over with well-worn Madisms like, "...mainly because...!" and other breezy, hand-me-down catchphrases. With no glimpse into the creative life behind the vacant gaze of Alfred E. Neuman, you might as well buy a Mad reprint from the days when it used to parody superficial fluff like this book.

The only interesting thing about "Mad Art" is its inclusion of the newer artists who have appeared since most of us stopped reading the magazine. These newcomers are technically rather good (if unoriginal), and it's important to see what's being done today, even though Mad hasn't been funny for a decade and a half.

Customer Reviews:

Not too good of a book.......2006-04-05

When a kid is trying to draw a cartoon insect, there are a few ways they could approach the task. One might make the cartoon bug a sort of characature of the insect by exagerrating the existing features of the insect. Another might be to abandon reality and go a more creative route, giving the bug life and personality. Unfortunatly, this book does niether. The scant 24 page book consists of only 6 pages that having drawing insructions. The result of these pages produce unimaginative drawings of only six different bugs that resemble unimpressive clip art style renderings that aren't at all anatomically correct. The Mosquito looks like a flying ant-eater. If you want to teach a kid to draw bugs, a quick internet image search would produce a better outcome.

Book Description

A classic returns. The original edition of Amos Vogel's seminal book, Film as a Subversive Art was first published in 1974, and has been out of print since 1987. According to Vogel--founder of Cinema 16, North America's legendary film society--the book details the "accelerating worldwide trend toward a more liberated cinema, in which subjects and forms hitherto considered unthinkable or forbidden are boldly explored." So ahead of his time was Vogel that the ideas that he penned some 30 years ago are still relevant today, and readily accessible in this classic volume. Accompanied by over 300 rare film stills, Film as a Subversive Art analyzes how aesthetic, sexual, and ideological subversives use one of the most powerful art forms of our day to exchange or manipulate our conscious and unconscious, demystify visual taboos, destroy dated cinematic forms, and undermine existing value systems and institutions. This subversion of form, as well as of content, is placed within the context of the contemporary world view of science, philosophy, and modern art, and is illuminated by a detailed examination of over 500 films, including many banned, rarely seen, or never released works.

Customer Reviews:

A film wish-list of sorts..........2007-01-06

I had the privilege of being Amos Vogel's student back in the early 1980s, and was therefore fortunate to see a number of the 'unobtainable' films mentioned in this book. Vogel is an encyclopedia of film knowledge, and the often pithy accounts of various 'subversive' films -- including some you might not guess would warrant the label -- are both entertaining and intelligent. The image selection is great though, as others (including Vogel) have noted, a still frame stands for a film in an inadequate but nevertheless allusive way.

The Bible of Underground Film.......2006-04-13

I've had this book half of my life and am still working on seeing all of the films. That said some of the films reviewed in it have dated badly (even Jean Luc Godard has dismissed his Maoist films which never show today). In addition, some of the countercultural (aka hippie) terminology such as "consciousness 3" will leave modern readers scratching their heads. That said it is an essential discussion of films that break film conventions, whether it be through the language of film, political subversion (suddenly relevant again) or sexual politics. The one positive note is that at the end of the book the author states in bold, "But the real question remains: how to reach the masses 'out there' with five heavy cans of 35 mm film and nowhere to show them". The answer is that through video and especially dvd films mentioned in this book that were impossible to find are suddenly resurfacing and being re-evaluated. Though some films are best shelved (I pity anyone who watches all 8 hours of Andy Warhol's "Empire" just to say that they saw it), others especially from world cinema such as the Iranian film "The Cow" and the Senegal made film "The Money Order (Mandabi)" show film makers who now have recieved acclaim. Though some reviewers wanted an update of this book I think that it was written and speaks for a certain point in time, before the co-option of underground films into indie films, when foreign films were still ahead of the times, before garbage like Jackass broke almost all visual taboos while actually taking film a giant leap backward and before the vcr, when hunting down experimental films showing in theaters or libraries was a religion onto itself.

The Best Book On Subversive Film Ever Compiled!!!.......2006-02-20

This book by Amos Vogel is a reference like no other. He explains why these films need to be seen. The photographs are a treasure themself and the book is abound with them. I have refered to this book constantly through the past 30 years. I'ts great to see it is back in print. My film library of over 1000 art, surrealist, avant guard cinema was largely do to Mr. Vogel's knowledge and explanation of film. I'm only sorry that it has not been updated to show the 1970's to 2006. A must have for sure, get the book while they last.

A classic.......2003-12-11

I agree with other reviewers. This is a great, indispensible book. I've spent the past twenty-five years or so trying to see all the films mentioned. I've made pretty good progress, but I still have a lot to go. My copy is all dog-eared and falling apart and I came here hoping to find one for my half-brother, who is just starting out in the movie biz and needs to know what's in this book. I hope it gets itself back into print. I'd love to see it updated to include subversive films created since 1974.

One of the best books i've ever read.......2002-05-09

I picked this up for a quarter at a book sale at our local library. I have read it straight through several times, and i still pick it up quite often and thumb through.

Book Description

Subversive Pleasures offers the first extended application of Mikhail Bakhtin's critical methods to film, mass-media, and cultural studies. With extraordinary interdisciplinary and multicultural range, Robert Stam explores issues that include the "translinguistic" critique of Saussurean semiotics and Russian formalism, the question of language difference in the cinema, issues of national culture in Latin America, and "the carnivalesque" in literature and film. He discusses literary works by Rabelais, Shakespeare, and Jarry and treats films by Vigo, Bunuel, Wertmuller, Imamura, Mel Brooks, Monty Python, Marleen Gooris, and others. Now in paperback, Subversive Pleasures is a splendidly lucid introduction to the central concepts and analytical methods of Bakhtin and the Bakhtin circle.

Customer Reviews:

A fine book by a a top Bakhtin theorist!.......2000-04-13

Here is an academic book that anyone interested in language, literature, and cinema should love. Beautifully written (as few academic books are), it applies the cultural criticism of Russian writer Mikhail Bakhtin to a diverse selection of novels and films, but most notably to those from Brazil. It is a match made in heaven, because both Bakhtin and Brazil believe in carnival (the joyful festivities that take place just before Lent, known in the States as Mardi Gras) and the carnivalesque (where rules are suspended, the oppressed take center stage, the powerful are mocked, and the body is celebrated). Stam begins by providing a clear and thorough overview of Bakhtin's precepts and terminology (dialogism, chronotope, heteroglossia), showing how his writing can fill in the gaps left by other theories and illuminate both artistic texts and everyday life. He then moves on to discuss the conjunction between Bakhtin and film theory specifically, providing elegant analyses of Bunuel's "Exterminating Angel," Godard's "Two or Three Things I Know About Her," Welles's unfinished "It's All True" (much of which was shot in Brazil), Brazilian classics such as "Macunaima," and "Mar das Rosas/Sea of Roses." and several others. Along the way, he takes in such issues as the grotesque and magical body, the subversive as well as the pleasurable potential of carnival, the uses of cannibalism, and cinematic eroticism. This wide-ranging study takes in everything from music (by Brazilian composers Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque, plus rap) to the influence of the Yiddish theater on Woody Allen's "Zelig." An outstanding book that's a delight to read.

Trashfilm Roadshows: Off the Beaten Track With Subversive Movies (Headpress)

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Trashfilm Roadshows: Off the Beaten Track With Subversive Movies (Headpress)
Johannes Schonner
Manufacturer: Critical Vision
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1900486199

Book Description

For Johannes Schonherr, no job is too small, no place too distant or unlikely that he cannot screen or hunt down obscure movies. From the bowels of New York and Punk clubs in San Francisco, to Pyongyang, North Korea, and Moscow on a fake visa, Schonherr is a cineaste on a mission: He is attacked by feminists; witness to the final gig of shock-rocker GG Allin; employee in the world's cheapest film-to-video transfer shop; and proprietor of a rat-house cinema.

Trashfilm Roadshows is a film book like no other.

Book Description

With flowerpots on their heads, distinctive post-Kraftwerk imagery, and staggeringly catchy electro-pop riffs, Devo carved an '80s niche setting them apart from the mish-mash of punk, new wave and rock surrounding them. Dellinger interviewed band members and asso-ciates, ransacked their archives to provide illustrations, memorabilia and rare photographs documenting Devo's entire career, and re-evaluated their complete works to provide the most -exhaustive survey of the Devo phenomenon.

Customer Reviews:

are we not men?.......2006-11-12

This album just keeps getting better with age. A must have for any collection.

Duty Now more than ever.......2006-07-09

The authurs are very opinionated and they simply stop writing about what happened in the Devo story after the 3rd album. As a fan of Devo's Freedom of Choice era I find it sad the book ends when the bands success takes off and skims over the troubles with Warner Brothers, making the videos, downfall and Re-Evolution into TV and movie soundtracks at Mutato Muzika. There is a lot of information by former friends who have an ax to grind. Having said that there is a lot to learn about the early hardcore Devo recordings and the philosophy behind the band. Recomended until a documentary or better band history comes along.

Raed the last 2/3.......2005-04-18

The book is divided up in three sections: Head, Body, and Tail. The "head" section was very boring and hard to read. I put the book down for about 6 months, trying to get through this section. Once I got to "body" and "tail," the book flew. I found it very interesting, being a Devo fan from when I first saw them on Sat. Night Live, through New Traditionalists. Being from the Cleveland/Akron area, I also liked all the local references.

**WARNING** UN-AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY!!!.......2004-07-20

Having researched the band DEVO on several other occasions, I found it quite odd that most of the quotes from the band, I had actually read elsewhere. It initially made me wonder if the author had actually interviewed the band at all.

It wasn't until today when I read on the official DEVO site (www.clubdevo.com) that in Jerry Casale's very own words that it was IN FACT, an unauthorized biography. Here is what Jerry had to say:

"...the book was done without our approval or co-operation (most of the quotes were extracted from pre-existing sources and the short "interview" with me was done under a different pretext) .The book is loaded with mis-information, delusional distortions and outright lies perpetrated by people with axes to grind. The result is that the significance of the creative process that spawned the almost 100 songs that Mark and I wrote and the excitement of the concepts and aesthetic influences behind our stage shows, costumes and videos gets trivialized and even buried by petty and spiteful politics. These politics are perpetrated by people who often times weren't even involved in the events they spin so far afield but their spin is never-the-less swallowed by the book's writers hook line and sinker. Some day soon we will release another book that sets the record straight on what it meant to be DEVO. -- Gerald Casale."

Aside from all of this, even when I thought it was an authorized release, I found the author repeating information in a very unnecessary way. At least three times does he mention that Mark had an obsession with the Beatles. And he doesn't just mention it, he goes into depth about it. This was another thing that made me wonder if they were just short on material.

The cover I found a little boring, and not well-designed. Another warning that I did not heed.

I'm very disappointed that I actually paid money for this book, not to mention spending hours pouring over it. I would highly recommend passing this one by, as it would be a terrible waste to support the fools who wrote it.

Too Much Still Unwritten.......2004-06-21

I was pretty disappointed in this book. I used to just love these guys back in high school, but this book doesn't go far enough. I was 3/4 of the way finished before I got to the days when they made it big. Too much on Jerry's early days, a lot of Jerry everywhere! As usual, the Bobs, especially Bob 2, and Alan are in the back somewhere, and you wonder what's up with them. Nothing revealing, other than Bob 2 apparently left his wife when they began to hit it big, Bob 1 was a drinker, and Jerry is an even bigger creep than I imagined. Some good details into the first "video" and who some of the people in them were, but nothing on the videotapes with Rod and Donut. No mention of Laraine Newman, their fascination with donuts and pirates, how their politics always seemed so leftist yet they just wanted to make big bucks and now run Big Entertainment companies, etc etc. Nothing about the concept of the power domes, who the fat kid on the exercise machine was, Bob 1's daughter being on the Shout LP cover, so much is left out. Some good pics, but I'm sure more could have been dug up. Sounds like the authors did most research via telephone interviews. They talked to General Boy, but I did that back in the 80s, when a friend and I rang him up on the phone! We lived in Ohio then and both Robert and his wife would chat with us like we were old friends! I'm mixed. There are some great old insights and pieces of trivia, but it really could have been longer and told more about the 80s and on. Devotees should get it because nothing else is there, but be prepared to feel like you've had a delicious appetizer without dinner.
Later thoughts: The book that Devo was so fascinated with, "The Beginning Was The End" and the basis for their De-evolution theory, has anyone else read it? I found a copy and it's wretched. The author uses photos to compare blacks with various apes! Why were they so interested in this book?! And I forgot about Jerry's "I was standing there was my friend was killed" story. According to the book he stretches the truth quite often. So was he there or is he making this up too? I agree with another reviewer that said he would be basically pushing up daisies before listening to the last couple of albums! The first two were great, the rest, a few good songs, but popish. Musik for Insomniaks bored me silly, I can see where it got the title. This book may be out of print after this run, so pass it around like a Casale galpal!

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We Are Devo!
Jade Dellinger , and David Giffels
Manufacturer: SAF Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

"Extensively researched. . . . The mostly untold story of Devo's beginnings makes this book so fascinating."-The Wire

"Given the propensity of Devo to propagate misinformation about themselves, it is comforting to finally have a book that appears to draw all threads of these men, who lived so deliberately, into a knot of actual events. Inspiring stuff."-Rock Sound Magazine

The first paperback edition of the highly successful illustrated biography of America's pioneering art rock spud men, Devo.

Welcome, What to Do First: Amway, We Deliver the Best (1987 Publishing, 1987LVA138H)

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Welcome, What to Do First: Amway, We Deliver the Best (1987 Publishing, 1987LVA138H)
Jay Van Andel , and Rich DeVos
Manufacturer: Amway Corp.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

Customer Reviews:

interesting..........2001-04-08

The Publisher's Weekly review is blatantly inaccurate. I felt that Kroes' thoughts on American culture were the farthest thing from "arrogant". He spends a lot of time criticizing traditionally condescending European views of American culture, and I feel that his own views are quite reasonable. He accepts cultural relativity and does not strike a holier-than-thou pose at all.

That said, I do think that Kroes' attempt to study such a broad topic using such small examples is a bit strained. Also, the first chapter is insufferably intellectual and boring. Nevertheless, Kroes provides an interesting perspective on European views of American culture.

A great perspective on American Culture.......2000-12-13

Among all the other books on American culture that were written by Americans, If You've One, by a Dutch scholar, is my favorite one. In contrast to many current studies of America, which concentrate on ethnic groups or gender issues, Kroes examines US culture as a whole. A term that Kroes uses over and over again is "quinessentially American," which he tries to define. He offers some great insight, and more importantly, a perspective that can be very useful. Even though it is written for European audiences, I would recommend this book to Americans as well.

If You'Ve Seen One, You'Ve Seen the Mall Europeans and American Mass Culture

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If You'Ve Seen One, You'Ve Seen the Mall Europeans and American Mass Culture
Rob Kroes
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPVC8U

Book Description

As the writer and creator of some of the best-loved series in British TV history, David Croft has captivated audiences with such timelessly lovable sitcoms as Dad's Army, Hi de Hi!, Allo Allo, and Are You Being Served? David's autobiography reflects on a life that has always revolved around showbusiness, and provides a privileged insight into the workings of British TV from the 60s to 80s.

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