You see why I put those up? Because of Trump and Putin? Nyet!!! Because Jack Davis died.
Jack Davis, an illustrator who poked fun at celebrities and politicians in Mad magazine for decades and whose work appeared on the covers of Time and TV Guide, died on Wednesday in St. Simons Island, Ga. He was 91....Goodbye to a great man!
He got his start in 1950 selling drawings to EC Comics, which published horror fiction titles like “Tales From the Crypt.” Two years later, amid an outcry over the potentially harmful effects of violent comics on children, the company started what became Mad magazine, edited by Harvey Kurtzman. Mr. Davis was a member of the “Usual Gang of Idiots,” the nickname for the crew that put out the magazine.
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Great image of Nixon. The current PC culture would never permit MAD Magazine. They are humorless twerps afraid of women and any culture group except WASP.
Yes, Godspeed, Mr. Davis. Many fond memories of reading (and laughing aloud at) Mad Magazine in the 70s.
When "string" bikinis were so new scare quotes were needed.
Who's tugging on Nixon?
Inadvertently you did write about Trump. Jack Davis was the staff cartoonist.
"Who's tugging on Nixon?"
Is it Rumsfeld??
I discovered Mad in the drugstore magazine rack in about 1961. It was life-transforming. I couldn't believe how great it was. I was eager to tell my girlfriends, and I was disturbed to be told that Mad was for boys... like I wouldn't look pretty reading it and no one would ever want to marry me.
Nixon shmixon; you guys are missing the meaty, in-depth journalistic opus that is Time magazine 1974:
New "String" Bikinis
I was eager to tell my girlfriends, and I was disturbed to be told that Mad was for boys... like I wouldn't look pretty reading it and no one would ever want to marry me.
You showed 'em. What'd they read, anyway?
It's Henry Jackson..
"is it Rumsfeld??"
In his role as Ambassador to NATO? Not a very good likeness.
When "string" bikinis were so new scare quotes were needed.
Back then they were scare quotes. They're euphemism quotes by comparison to string bikinis today, which really are strings. They're so small the laws of quantum mechanics apply.
I was eager to tell my girlfriends, and I was disturbed to be told that Mad was for boys... like I wouldn't look pretty reading it and no one would ever want to marry me.
And where are those girlfriends today? Probably lost in the game life, without the laughter and mirth, they woulda got from Mad Magazine!
Thank you, Mr. Davis. Subscriber from the issue with the Jaws fold-in - many a night under cover with the flashlight...
Blogger rehajm said..."It's Henry Jackson.."
Bingo!
I was disturbed to be told that Mad was for boys... like I wouldn't look pretty reading it and no one would ever want to marry me.
Maybe that's why you look so sad and withdrawn in that 60's photo of yourself that you've published here a few times. You were still brooding on being denied MAD.
"I was eager to tell my girlfriends, and I was disturbed to be told that Mad was for boys... like I wouldn't look pretty reading it and no one would ever want to marry me."
My mother was a big MAD Magazine fan. When she got a new copy, I went for Spy vs Spy first.
Isn't Mr. Davis mixing his myths in the Khrushchev/Kennedy one on top? Kennedy as Atlas + Sampson? Or did Atlas just need a trim?
Girls usually give bad advice.
This is life's wisdom.
When George W. Bush was visiting India, I recall an American commentator's bemusement about the stories on the visit in the Indian English press. He couldn't figure out what was striking him as odd, aside from the idiosyncrasies of Indian English. Then he figured it out: The stories were written by people who didn't hate George W. Bush.
Similarly, I'm struck by Davis's Nixon. It looks like a caricature drawn by someone who didn't hate Richard Nixon, or could actually effectively hide it. That makes it practically unique..
Davis was great. Back in the early 1980s, a kid in my first life drawing class, a very talented draughtsman, told me was had caddied for Jack Davis at the golf/country club where he golfed. This was when Davis still lived up in Westchester or thereabouts, before he moved back to his home state of Georgia.
A couple of years ago a small gallery in DUMBO (Brooklyn) that specializes in showing cartoonists, had a show of Davis' work. To see in person was glorious! The man himself attended with his wife. I can say I was in the presence of greatness for a little while!
I can guarantee with 99.9% certainty that I did not have as many friends as our genial hostess back when I first discovered Mad Magazine. But friend I did have happily read it with me.
I nicked my older brother's copies of MAD. Spy vs spy was always my first stop.
Am I the only one who read Tales from the Crypt??
I did ultimately get my girlfriends to appreciate Mad.
I was kind of a trend leader when I was around 9 to 13.
"Back then they were scare quotes. They're euphemism quotes by comparison to string bikinis today, which really are strings. They're so small the laws of quantum mechanics apply."
*********
One of my young tenants hung a thong up to dry.
I thought, "what a colorful eyepatch".
There's nothing better than pure laughter. Mad Magazine gave me a lot that. I think at 13 or 14, we understandably migrated towards National Lampoon -- the occasional pic of naked girl did it.
But, looking back, Alfred E. Neuman gave more joy.
I got my haircut yesterday.
Walmart.
I usually go to a great place for clips, but not yesterday.
Now I see this.
Gaslighting, friendos, works to fuel me. It's further opportunity for Christ to speak through me, unwittingly to me always without the hindsight 20/20.
I have tried for years and failed to find more motivation than that which ungaslighting always delivers without fail.
I want from Mad to National Lampoon to Spy. Nowadays there's nothing. Even the cartoons in the New Yorker aren't all that great anymore. If you're a smart ass, you just wander alone in the wilderness. The Democratic Convention just begs for parody, but it's treated like Mother Theresa's funeral.
Jack Davis, it should be noted, was also superb at Civil War stories. God bless him.
"Who's tugging on Nixon?"
Leonid Brezhnev.
What do I win?
"What do I win?"
You lose.
RIP and thank you, Jack Davis. My Dad always said the sounds he loved best, were of his kids giggling and laughing. MAD was responsible for a lot of that laughter. Great memories.
Mad Magazine was originally Mad Comics. I picked up issue No. 2 in Myrtle Beach in 1952, as I recall, when I was 11. I can still remember the stories, like The Blob. I wrote away for issue No. 1, and dutifully collected every issue until it changed to a magazine. My mom gave the whole stack away when they moved from St. Louis in 1968, 16 years and 3 cities later. I found out when my kids spilled the beans. Mom swore them to secrecy, since she realized what a mistake that had been. God bless her, I'd forgotten about them.
Leonid Brezhnev.
What do I win?
Nothing. It's Brezhnev shaking Nixon's hand, not tugging at his coat tail.
I still remember the USSR's peace proposal to Kennedy according to Mad. It summed up the Cold War reality.
"In exchange for the eastern half of the USA, the USSR will pledge eternal Soviet friendship'"
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