Since you guys are going bananas over Archie, you should read the June 1954 Mad parody "Starchie" (drawn by legendary crazy genius Bill Elder). If you're not familiar with the history of Mad, all you need to know is that it started out as a much more insane and evil comic book (from EC Comics, the publisher of Tales From the Crypt), but, along with the other famously extreme EC titles, got corralled into the Fredric Wertham "Seduction of the Innocent" scare that prompted the congressional hearings that, in turn, led to the creation of the "Comics Code Authority." Mad's Editor in Chief (and co-founder, with artist Harvey Kurtzman) William M. Gaines was amongst those from the comics industry who testified before congress, making an impassioned "free speech" argument, but to no avail (remember that this was the mid-fifties). Under the newly-formed Comics Code Authority, a voluntary cooperative standard agreed to by all concerned, including Detective Comics Inc. (now DC) and Timely Comics (now Marvel), all the EC titles were cancelled except Mad, which was was re-born as a folio-sized black-and-white "magazine" (therefore exempt from the Comics Code)-- the format it's kept up to the present day. (Stuff from the original run of the comic was frequently repeated in the paperbacks and "Super Specials" we all read growing up, so despite everyone's best efforts we kids got exposed to the evil anyway.)
"Starchie" is from the original, untamed EC comics version of Mad, and its pretty typical of the extremely high quality of that period. Artist Bill "chicken fat" Elder excelled at the Mad practice of filling each panel with so much insane crap -- so many gags threaded through so much erudite surrealism -- that you practically go into a trance-state while reading the stuff. (Notice the characters' propensities for screaming at the tops of their lungs while frantically racing around -- more Elder trademarks.) They put out a CD-ROM anthology of the entire run of Mad ten years ago, and I bought it; hence my ability to deliver any material from any issue to customers like yourselves in mere seconds.
http://www.jordanorlando.com/starchie
10 comments:
Thanks Jordan, as you know I love MAD so any MAD input is welcomed by me anyway. Bill Elder is wonderful and the parody is outstanding. At least from my point of view, I was never a big Archie fan.
love the old, darker MAD; partial to "superduperman."
Yeah, "Superduperman" was great! Drawn by Wally Wood, whose style was more conventionally "comic book" than Elder's, so he could draw the heroic male physiques and the hot babes really well. The panels are still full of insane crap and everyone's still racing around and screaming, though.
I was never an Archie fan either!
I've never understood the phenomenon of "main character is a total cypher" that governs American classics like Archie (where Archie himself is just a boring idiot with no personality, although the other characters are cool) or Disney's cartoons (in which the center of attention is Mickey Mouse, who's, honestly, one of the weakest if not THE weakest characterization amongst major golden age cartoon characters).
Archie, Mickey Mouse...who else? There are protagonists who barely miss the trap of being boring, like Frodo or Tintin. I don't know how Tintin does it, honestly, because he SHOULD be boring (he's got no traits, and his head's a circle and some dots) but he's not boring at all. It's very nuanced writing, I think, that's the key.
Superman's not boring.
When JSP and I were young we were occasionally dragged to our great aunt's house, which was the childhood home of my father. Although our aunt was pretty damn cool (a very progressive woman for her time) her house was utterly boring. Fortunately she always had a pile of Archie (and other) Comics, most likely left in the house by my father or his siblings. They turned out to be great time killers.
I'm a very nostalgic person and I have a soft spot in my heart for Archie Comics. Of course I recognize that they are ridiculously stupid, which is part of their charm. When JSP or I post Archie "news"it's with a "wink wink" to each other given our history with the series. Archie comics are written for 8-year olds and are as simplistic and predictable as they come. Please don't ever mistake our posts on Archie as anything more than a fond nostalgia trip. We know there are no "nuances" to the stories or cleverness from the soulless machine that pumps them out. We also used to collect Mad Magazine.
Octo recently posted about our "Archie game". It was created from boredom and with the idea that Archie stories are so stupid and predictable that given a random word one could easily assemble a story within the time it takes to toast a bagel.
I'm not harshing on anyone for liking Archie. The stuff's not bad, for what it is. My problem is just Archie himself, since he's so dull. It harkens back to an earlier decade.
I mean, look at Joel from Risky Business and Marty McFly from Back to the Future. Two "typical teenagers" from the 1980s. And they're very troubling young men, because they don't care about anything but money. Marty's big moment of triumphant joy isn't destroying the death star; it's arriving in a timestream where he owns a Toyota 4x4.
That's why I love the "Starchie" parody, which emphasizes (amongst other things) the "typical teenager" schtick.
Thanks for posting this Jordan! I'm going through them right now.
Also I started combing through Space: 1999. At first I was bored and almost aborted but I sucked into the 3rd episode and warmed up the gang. I'm looking forward to burning through the rest of them!
JSP, I warned you about Space: 1999. It's its own weird thing; an acquired taste.
That is quite true... you have to enjoy the dry, paced beats of a certain kind of hard sci-fi -- that is also so completely not really hard sci-fi, being full of holes. I love it, though.
I used to read Archie comics that somehow came across my radar, but I don't recall owning any. Nevertheless, when I jumped into the game decades later, I found the Archie tone was easy to recall.
anyone want to buy this comic book hit me up with offers pages are good to great outside cover good but has tear at seam accord115@yahoo.com
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