Some Ideas for Articles, written by Mike Rhode, and excerpted from the print edition.
Why did some comic book companies start making fun of themselves? And why don’t they do it anymore? (updated and corrected from the print edition)
Marvel’s Not Brand Echh in the 1960s (revived with a 2018 one-shot), Crazy! (1973) and then What The? (1988-1993). Marvel’s Crazy Magazine (1973-1983). Fred Hembeck’s one-page superhero comic strips for both DC and Marvel, and then his Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe (1989) and Fred Hembeck Sells the Marvel Universe (1991). Image’s Splitting Image (1993). These were all done by companies to make fun of themselves. Unlike Mad, which never made fun of EC Comics, or the knockoff Cracked, these comics were published by the company using their characters and mocking themselves. Why? Is it something the creatives really wanted to do? Was there fan demand for it? Does DC’s Plop (1973-1976) count as one of these types of books or just a humor comic?
(images courtesy of the Grand Comics Database)
Michael Dooley responds:
"Unlike Mad, which never made fun of EC Comics…”
I suggest you read Harvey [Kutzman]'s first Mads, which directly made fun of Al {Feldstein]’s EC Comics. Mad #1's cover declares its intentions to mock Feldstein's EC output, which Harvey disliked. and in addition to its "jugular vein" subtitle, it acted as an intro to "Hoohah!", the lede piece, by declaring – spoiler alert – some readers may be taken in by Al's horror stories – which Harvey objected to on principle – but the less gullible will calmly pick their noses and realize that – HAH! – there's no "there" there.
I did some Googling to provide random examples:
"The first issue of Mad... The first story
("Hoohah!"), illustrated by the legendary Jack Davis and written by
Kurtzman, was actually a parody of EC horror comics. The joke of the
parody is that, in an old, dark house on a stormy night, nothing
happens."
______________
"Seeing
Kurtzman parodying the house style of (re: Feldstein's) purplish prose
and Jack Davis really letting his zany streak fly in the horror lampoon
“Hoohah!” is a delight..."
"...Mad Magazine began its life as a ground-breaking funny book, parodying films, television, song, and even EC itself."
______________
"The
opening story took on EC's most popular genre of comics, its horror
comics, with a couple who come upon a spooky house and just keep on
thinking that there is horror around every corner, even when it is just a
bunch of kids wearing a costume..."
"The third story, drawn by Will Elder, was a parody of EC's crime stories..."
______________
"In
our first outing, the kind of black humor horror/comedy story that
seems like it would fit in one of EC’s other books, maybe narrated by
the Crypt-Keeper or The Old Witch. After running out of fuel near the
notorious Bogg House (home of serial murderers God and Magog Bogg,
natch), a young couple finds nothing but the Caretaker, Melvin, who
pooh-poohs their warnings of ghosts and ghoulies and things that go bump
in the night. Instead, he reveals the true source of the strange noises
and bumps as a pair of misbehavin’ kids!"
______________
"Mad #1: Blobs! ~ The first two issues of Mad
parodied each genre that EC was known for. Jack Davis drew the horror
story, Will Elder the crime story, John Severin the “Two-Fisted” story,
and of course Wood drew this science-fiction send-up."
______________
"In
MAD #1, the parodies are of genres. The book... opens with the horror
parody “Hoohah!” ... “Hoohah!” is a simple tale of a couple stranded in a
thunderstorm by a haunted house. Like most EC horror comics, it
features a twist, but you can somewhat tell that Kurtzman himself was
never a fan of the horror books."
______________
"Early MAD thrived on genre parodies, and like in MAD
#1, we get another science fiction parody [in issue #2]. .... “Gookum!”
is an EC-style twist story, where Glarf, a Martian who crashed to Earth
tells reporters over a meal of why he had to escape his home planet. A
life form known as Gookum lay outside his city’s walls. Gookum is a
pink, jelly-like substance that lies dormant for 500 years; but when it
awakes, it devours organic material. The twist: It’s what we earthlings
call Jell-O."
Mike Rhode replies:
If it's only the first 2 issues out of a 60-year run I don't think it's particularly relevant, except to say "Originally Mad did, but almost immediately..."
Mad is probably a badly chosen example, because there were no other EC comics for most of its run, but it's the field's most famous humor comic, and the idea of this column is to get other people thinking and doing research.
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