Mad was a successful comic and that brought out a bunch of imitators in the early fifties. No one had the touch of
Mad creator, editor, writer and all around control freak Harvey Kurtzman. But there are some better than average stories in that pile of humor/satire comics that vied for some of the
Mad money. John Benson thought enough of “Oh, for the Life — of a Wife — of a Werewolf” to include it in his superb 2012 collection of
Mad imitations,
The Sincerest Form of Parody.
It was produced by the Iger Studio, and appeared in
Bughouse #2 (1954), an Ajax-Farrell comic. I laughed at the menu the werewolf is holding on page 3: “Roast artist....$2.75. Roast writer....30¢. Hashed politician....10¢." I am glad it has its values straight.
Let me second "The Sincerest Form of Parody," a great read, if you don't have, go get it.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of interesting how the art in this comedy piece is little changed from regular horror Iger Studio art. It's more exaggerated, but looks like any normal Ajax-Farrell horror comic of the day. There's a couple decent gags in there, though I'm still trying to figure out if our hero is a vampire or a werewolf or a ghoul!
Another thing that caught my eye -- for a mad rip-off -- is they didn't go with the panel packing that most mad rip-offs did. There's not a million little jokes spread out throughout the panels. It's a pretty straight setup-punch-line type of comic.
Reminds me of the fight between Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep in Death Becomes Her.
ReplyDelete