Tuesday, May 10, 2016
The Case of the Man Who Died A Lot
We'll return to more stories from THE THING series shortly, but first we have another request for a Jack Davis post, (I get Jack Davis requests weekly, btw!) And since the requestee wasn't very specific, thank god, I'm keeping the EC's locked up and digging into my 70's MAD paperback collection instead, thus dragging out this shivery chuckle fest, (written by Dick De Bartolo), and wonderfully illustrated by our man in question, the great Jack Davis-- a man who, despite a few false death rumors over the last few years, is actually very much still alive a lot! This gag filled horror gem appeared in The Return of a Mad Look at Old Movies #P4200, from March 1970.
I laughed a bit too hard at the running gag of Dr.Fear continuously using random food for replacement body parts.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the part that made me laugh the hardest was this part:
"If no one's been here for months, don't you think a fresh ham sandwich is very strange?"
"Very, father ran a kosher lab!"
Favorite gag: "Man who writes headlines murdered."
ReplyDeleteThis is the 70s and still we are working at Kurtzman's rhythms. This isn't a bad thing, that's mad, but it shows how influential Kurtzman was even up to this point.
Davis was so versatile. It still is amazing to see him go from dripping horror to very kinetic cartoony work (and still doing his version of sexy women.) And he was one thing a lot of the greats at EC didn't have -- speed. He probably did this thing in a couple days or less.
Mad-nificent! I'm not sure that I've ever seen this one before and I have to say I laughed and laughed. Davis is certainly one of my favorite geniuses. Is it really possible that's a twenty-five year old DeBartolo in the newspaper gag? It doesn't look like him to me, but I've never seen him without muttonchops.
ReplyDeleteFavorite gag: that clocks joke. That strikes me as a difficult gag to get right, all those repetitive images subtly nudging a reader toward the assumption that time is passing in some cinematic montage. Clever stuff.
Thanks a lot for the huge scans, too. I love getting under the hood a little bit.
"I said life immortal, not immoral, you dirty old gnome!" Oh, for a shot at either of those choices...
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether this was inspired just a little by "LADY FRANKENSTEIN" (because of the idea of the daughter being kept in the dark for a time). Did that come out just before 1970 or just after?
ReplyDeleteGreat Funny stuff! There is no harm blending humor with horror, it adds to the greatness that is this blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks Karswell!
Loved this one.very funny.Great art.
ReplyDeleteI know what everyone means about Jack Davis. Among other things, he's one of the few Mad cartoonists who can make me read a Mad item I'm NOT fond of (let alone one I DO like) from beginning to end. And then re-read it later on.
ReplyDelete