William M. Gaines (1922–1992)

A collection of scary, sometimes gory, stories that date from 1970 10 2017. In "Die-Vestment", a very old and incredibly wealthy man finds poor people who will sell him their internal organs to help their families, but the old man doesn't honor the contracts.
In "Zombie Bank", the only two human employees at the bank are a mistreated gopher and the beautiful, flirty secretary. And then there's just one human employee. In "Undertow", we meet a grieving young mother, but this is a horror story, show more so it isn't as it seems. show less

Fans new and old will delight to these classics from Mad Magazine's early days. Covering issues from April-September of 1953, we're treated to spoofs of Superman, Robin Hood, The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, Terry and the Pirates, Tarzan, and King Kong, among others. The artwork is astounding: Bill Elder, Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, and John Severin (though Severin's work would never hold up, in comparison to Wood or Elder).
My only complaint is about the page quality. Like the original issues, these show more pages are printed on newsprint-quality paper- and being that these special issues are over 25 years old, the pages are starting to deteriorate, and have taken on that "old paper" smell. Oh well, I'll enjoy them while I can... show less

Mad was a long-time voice of humor and satire; its heyday was in the 1960s. Any effort which churns out topical satire on a deadline imposed by monthly publication schedules must inevitably falter occassionally. Mad is not uniformly funny or on target. But over the long haul, its average has been remarkable and its insights have been illuminating. I still recall 40+ years later in most cases, many specific pieces I enjoyed back in the 60s and they still retain much of their punch. It's not show more their fault the topicality and immediacy have abandoned them. In other cases, the points of the articles have become chillingly accurate prophecies. show less

MAD #167, June 1974

Ah, the nostalgia. June 1974, 50 years ago. I've read MAD through my childhood, but the ones published before I was born were definitely better. Topics poked at here are introverts, 'you know something's fishy when', the gas shortage, and a made-up game called basebrawl, which is pretty much what it sounds like.