A pair of ghostly failures, needing help in haunting a house, go to expert haunter Emily Ghost. It is a takeoff of Emily Post, the famous author of books of etiquette. The image of Emily in the story is inspired by Chas Addams’s slinky Morticia,* who was an inspiration to Vampira and others.
From Madhouse #3 (1954):
*The characters of the macabre family, created by Addams, were unnamed until the television show, The Addams Family, was created in the early sixties.
2 comments:
"Amiable goofiness" is the best way to put it. It's obviously an attempt to life what Mad was doing but with a lot less skill but still the art wasn't all that bad, in a kids comic sort of way.
It was paced pretty poorly, but was still a fun read just for the sheer silliness of it.
Brian, it's hard to be funny!
Back in the days that Mad and its imitators were being published, we Americans had some brilliant comedians to choose from on television: Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason...we also had Martin and Lewis, and my favorites, Abbott and Costello. And then we had the unique Stan Freberg, who did satirical versions of popular songs. (Weird Al had nothing on Stan Freberg!)
I am sure they had an impact on humor by Kurtzman and then the lesser talents picked up on what Kurtzman was doing and tried to duplicate it. They mostly failed, but at least some of what they attempted was interesting, if not gut-busting funny. Mostly sheer silliness, as you say.
Thanks!
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