A Camp Classic -- For Adults Only!

I stumbled across The Fickle Finger of Fate when I immersed in reading about cryptids last summer. In my searches for other books by John Keel, the author of a number of books, mostly on subjects classified as paranormal, I discovered this little gem. It's a time capsule of pop culture, specifically the moments in 1966 when the world went wild for all things Batman on the success of that TV show. Superheroes were all the rage and Keel decided to take a dive. But this is not just a pastiche of a superhero novel, it's a blend of those tropes along with some exceedingly saucy material of the sexual persuasion. And given that our hero's name is "Satyr-Man" how could it be any different. But while I was already attracted to this book, it was not Keel's writing which pushed me over the edge to pick it up, but rather the illustrations of Al Jaffee. His cover is pretty typical of the kind of art which is featured in the book. 

Satyr-Man is in reality Parker Potter the Third who seems to have been a rich playboy at one time, but now is down on his luck and aside from his nagging maid Sadie works alone. Bonita Grant, daughter of daffy inventor Professor Gilroy, is his first conquest in the book, though hardly the last one. In a battle against the criminal activities of Mr. Big of the outfit G.Y.P. (Global Yokel Put-on) who has an array of henchmen and henchwomen. There is quite a bit of running around and the women seem weirdly attracted to Potter despite his lack of poise and wealth. Clearly, he has something they like. Whatever it is, they take off their clothes for him throughout the novel. 

This is dumb novel, of its era but a successful selling by some reports 600,000 copies or thereabouts. This is also about the time that Keel got into UFOlogy which led him to write the supremely successful The Mothman Prophecies a little over a decade later.  The Fickle Finger of Fate could only have been produced exactly when it was and frankly only someone of my exact generation is going to get many of the rather lame jokes and jabs. I only recommend it for Batman completists and for the Jaffee artwork which is pretty dang good. 

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Favorite MAD Artist Countdown # 1 - Al Jaffee!

That Al Jaffee tops my list surprises even me. When I sat down to construct this little list, I assumed Don Martin was at the top, but then I thought of Jaffee and all those absolutely brilliant Fold-In back covers he produced over the long decades and amazingly continues to produce I am absolutely gob-smacked by the wit and cleverness and sheer attractiveness of his pages. Jaffee did all sorts of gags for the inside of MAD, most notably "Snappy Answers...". I've bought a few Jaffee books over the years, but I do not have the collection of Fold-Ins which came out a decade ago.

I regret not having it, but it goes for a pretty penny these days, though it's worth it. Maybe it's because you had to work for it, maybe that's why the Fold-In gags linger in the mind -- it's participatory. (I always tried to do it in a way in which I could guess the answer but not crease the cover -- pretty hard sometime.)  That and the sheer attractiveness of Jaffee's style which is instantly recognizable on the page. Is there any member of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" who is indispensable? Time has proven that is not the case, with the decades claiming each of them in some way, but Jaffee remains. Sadly I know that like all things, even his delightful images will depart, but until then he remains delightfully MAD.

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MAD Stocking Stuffer!

I have been reintroduced to the irreverent mirth of MAD this past year, since the reboot of the vintage EC series, now part of DC's sprawling collection of publications. This delightful though admittedly somewhat expensive package features some of the classic MAD material by veteran MAD men and new MAD men alike. This is actually a re-issue of a 2017 tome. With art from the likes of Don Martin, Dave Berg, Sergio Aragones, Al Jaffee and Paul Coker it feels like proper MAD to me.

And somehow my mood these days makes me happy that the eternally irreverent mug of Alfred E. Neuman is leering out at one and all this Christmas Day.

Here are few more classic covers.

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Humbugs!

After Mad, after Trump, there came Humbug. It was Image Comics decades before the launch of that later more famous brand. When Harvey Kurtzman left Mad for a host of reasons, he had a scheme with Hugh Hefner to launch Trump another magazine in the Mad mode but slicker and upscale. It lapsed after a mere two issues, so Kurtzman and the talent he'd assembled to produce Trump were left without a gig. So they decided to make their own gig, and pooled their money and became not only talent but owners of their own magazine. That magazine they named Humbug and in some of the most desperate times in American publishing history they launched.

With distribution avenues limited they sought a partner in Charlton Comics, a likely  mobbed-up operation which had its own distribution system in addition to publications. And for eleven issues spread over 1957 and 1958 Humbug hit the stands. The magazine was oddly sized for its first many issues and so landed somewhere between regular mags and comics and it cost more to book than did comics. It was not in full color, but that was not necessarily a hindrance. Mad was a hit and it was in black and white and Trump had been in color and apparently failed to find an audience, or enough of one fast enough. So Humbug tumbled along for nearly two years before the end and in those eleven issues Kurtzman and his gang of talented artists such as Jack Davis, Arnold Roth, Will Elder, and Al Jaffee made a pretty funny mag. Here is a much more detailed description of how Humbug came into being by Bill Schelly from his biography of Kurtzman.

Even while Humbug was still running, Kurtzman made a deal with Ballantine Books (which had just lost Mad reprints to Signet) to reprint some Humbug material in paperback form. It didn't have the same success alas.

Several years ago Fantagraphics reprinted the eleven issues of Humbug in two handsome volumes. They sport new covers, one by Al Jaffee and another by Arnold Roth.

I came into this world in 1957, so reading a magazine which so resolutely satirizes the events of that year and the next is a fascinating window in to the time I was born into.

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Presidential Strippers!

This is an amazing artifact! This 1986 jam poster features Ronald and Nancy Reagan (rendered by Mort Drucker) at the center of a gargantuan gaggle of comic strip and comic book characters rendered by the original artists who created and promoted them. For a cool $12,750 bucks this can be yours. For more details check out this link. The talent is amazing and the signatures alone are epic. There's Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Mort Drucker, Charles Shulz, Sergio Aragones, Will Elder, Al Jaffee, and many more.

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Ah Humbug!

Al Jaffee & Friends
Arnold Roth & Tomes
Talk about a sweet deal, this was it. I went to my local Half-Price Bookstore (quickly becoming my favorite bookstore) and was browsing around looking for something of interest well priced, when I stumbled across the Fantagraphics two-volume slipcased reprint edition of Humbug magazine.

This magazine was the brainchild of a post-MAD Harvey Kurtzman and four key satire cartoonists, notably Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee, and Arnold Roth. These five key talents along with a few others were the core driving forces behind this 1957 MAD-style mag.


I found two sets actually, one still in its plastic and one free so that I could actually thumb through it. When I found the spoof of Rodan I knew that I had to have the collection. It originally sold for $60 but these were $20, a bargain too good to pass up.

I've not yet read much of the actual material, but I have plundered the behind-the-scenes essays and they make good reading. These are handsome volumes, recommened at twice the price, but if you can find them for what I paid, you'd be a fool not to pounce.

It's a beautiful two-volume set. Here's a link which will give you a closer look at the contents.

Here's a complete cover gallery for the full Humbug run, which was a mere eleven issues. This was an early experiment in creator-owned production, and like most it was not a commercial success.












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