PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

Mad, Not Mad

The PopCult Bookshelf

61vfnwniixlBehaving Madly: Zany, Loco, Cockeyed, Rip-off, Satire Magazines
by Ger Apeldoorn and Craig Yoe (authors/editors)
Yoe Books/IDW Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1631408564
$34.99

This is not a book review. It’s an alert. This book will be published on April 11, and any fan of irreverent humor will want to own it on the day it comes out. Master comics historian, Craig Yoe, has compiled (with Ger Apeldoorn) a collection of the best of the dozens of imitations of MAD, the legendary comic book/magazine that set the tone for humor that seems to have shaped our reality today.

I haven’t seen the book yet, but I’ve ordered it already (from Amazon, where it’s cheap). I don’t need to see it to know what I’m getting. I’ve been reading thirty and forty year old copies of Cracked and Crazy Magazines to kill time lately. Mad Magazine was the standard bearer, but there’s some amazing work in their fellow traveller’s books, too.

Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

When Mad was turned into a magazine in 1954, every publisher and his uncle came up with his own version, often using the same talent. Behaving Madly presents 200 pages of never reprinted material by Bill Elder, Jack Davis, John Severin, Al Jaffee, Joe Maneely, Jack Kirby, Ross Andru, Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand, Basil Wolverton, Steve Ditko, Lee Elias, and many others. This coffee table art book is produced by comic strip historian Ger Apeldoorn and Eisner winner Craig Yoe. Looking for a little more excitement in your life? Get mad and get Snafu, Lunatickle, Cockeyed, Crazy, Thimk, Frenzy, Frantic, Loco, Panic, and Zany, too!

You know this is going to be a gem than any fan of classic comic books will want in their collection.