Word: mad
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Jules Feiffer Little Nemo in Slumberland Richard Corliss: Harvey Kurtzman TIME: Al Feldstein TIME: Peanuts in the Gallery Masters of American Comics The Spirit Archives ABSOLUTELY MAD...
...Dreaming up and writing Mad at EC Comics, Kurtzman virtually invented what would become the era's dominant tone of irreverent self-reference: one form of pop culture mocking all other forms, and itself. Kurtzman inspired several of the artists in this show, including Crumb, whose exemplarily twisted panels first appeared in Kurtzman's post-Mad magazine Help!, and Art Spiegelman, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus in 1986 spurred a lot of high-minded people toward a belated appreciation of the form. (A comic book about the Holocaust - that must somehow be important...
...Many comics artists, including Kurtzman and much of the Mad gang, had been schooled in fine art before turning to the strips. Some, like Will Elder, Kurtzman's loopiest cartoonist, and Al Feldstein, the mastermind of EC's horror and science fiction comics before becoming editor of Mad in 1956, have turned to more respectable forms of watercolors - what could easily be recognized as art, if not great art - in their twilight years. But in their prime, when Elder and Feldstein (and Herriman and Segar and King) were doing their most vigorous work, sending out comic distress signals under...
...that raises my last quibble about the museuming of comics. Many of the artists included as writers more than "directors." Put it this way: would you rather see (read) Kurtzman's Mad or Spiegelman's Maus illustrated by other artists, or have others write stories for which Kurtzman and Spiegelman provided the drawings? The first, obviously, because the genius was in the writing. Indeed, though Kurtzman and Feldstein did their own drawing for some EC comic covers and stories, most were illustrated by terrific artists (Elder, Wallace Wood, Jack Davis) who brought their own personalities to the equation. At Marvel...
...lovers, invest your money in the Little Nemo book; in The Spirit Archives; in the spectacular enlarged reproduction of Mad comics that Russ Cochran produced in the 80s, or the MAC OS X compilation of all Mad magazines. Sit at your computer, snuggle up in bed or sprawl on the floor with the book open before you. Be a kid again, discovering the low thrills and high art of old Comics Books. You don't need a museum to tell you that this stuff is great...