Mad Strikes Back!

by Harvey Kurtzman

More humor in a Jugular Mad Strikes Back@ Ballantine books 35 cent original.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comedy, Satire, Comix

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

Reviews

[Holley S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny old time comics were a treat to read.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this old paperback due to an affinity for some of the MAD reprints I fondly remember from my childhood, but this was a much different experience. It's a selection of cartoon reprints taken from the pages of the magazine circa 1955, each of them satirising some popular comic strip of the day, so there's Popeye, King Kong, etc. The humour is mostly pun-based and satirising everything about the then-modern America, but for a modern reader the racism is quite jarring. I also wasn't a fan of the physical condensing/constraining of the reprints into paperback form, which makes the artwork look cramped.

[J Poolner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Growing up on late-70's MAD, seeing their 50s-era output in anthologized forms or special anniversary issues brought me to places I didn't recognize as culturally significant at all. (Not that I was thinking all wordy like that as a kid.) So, while I appreciated all the Yiddish I was learning so as to impress my grandparents by calling someone a 'gonef', I barely had any reference point to come close to appreciating the content. And I still don't. Then again, maybe I'm a putz?

[Michael David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of stuff with regard to politics has become dated. However, students of history should nevertheless be able to squeak out laughter from this intelligently written book being sardonic about everything in America. It's still a good comic.

[Tom Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Potrzebie.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite efforts to map the influence of literary pornography in childhood, most of my book reviews give the misleading impression of a precocious boy genius, a Tom Swift of the intellect. Riding to the forest preserves along the DesPlaines River with two dogs and a human friend today, I tried to come up with a list of hitherto unmentioned literary influences dating to elementary school which would give a more balanced picture of my actual interests. Along with Proust and Nietzsche I came up with the publications of Mad Magazine, the series of paperback reprints in particular, all of which I acquired during grade school, all of which I read again and again and again.

The title most outstanding of the lot is Mad Strikes Back. First published in 1955, it consists of reprints from their period as a comic book. I purchased it for something like $0.35 at the Meadowdale Shopping Centre, then home of the "world's largest department store under one roof"--one of the very many signs of global progress spearheaded by the American free enterprise system. Being with my parents, my reading of it began immediately--an early lesson in the necessity of always having a book along to avoid the agonies of boredom consequent upon human herd behavior.

Although I occasionally picked up an actual issue of Mad Magazine itself, none of them compared to the quality of the paperback reprints of their really old material, the humor of which is sometimes actually appealing to both adults and kids and the artwork of which is often quite impressive for its zany detail.

[Richard Epstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as I blame Chevy Chase for the election of Jimmy Carter, I credit Mad with much of what happened in the 60s and early 70s. Nothing else in our preadolescent lives broke down automatic respect for established norms and authorities. I can conceive of a time or place where something like that might not be a good thing. Not there. Not then.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another mad Mad product! It begins with straight talk from Bob and Ray (for those of us who remeber Bob and Ray, we betray our age!). Then, takeoffs on a number of subjects are sent up: Popeye, Prince Valiant (remember that comic strip?),King Kong, and so on. As always, fun. . . .

[dirt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good times. And really racist times. Yikes.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved it overall but hated the last story about manduck the magician