Alice In Comicland!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There are easily together one of the greatest influences on modern culture of any works from the 19th Century. Published in 1865 and 1871 respectively, both novels were written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under his famous pen name of Lewis Carrol. Imagery and aspects of the two works are constantly being referenced time and again all across our culture have been for over one hundred and fifty years. Details of the works are so ingrained that people make reference to them and don't even really know they are doing so, not unlike Shakespeare. These stories have entered the genetic code of  society and are impossible excise, even if such a dreadful idea did occur to anyone. 

The two novels are highly visual and were illustrated originally by Sir John Tenniel, at the time a cartoonist for Punch magazine. With such a beginning it's no small wonder that these stories are ripe for adaptation in many a comic strip and comic book. The impact in film has been immense too, as without Alice Walt Disney might never have had the opportunity to make Mickey. There are more film and cartoon adaptations than I can muster the strength to list, but just to name a few there is Disney's later 50's cartoon version which offer versions of Carrol's character as strong in American society as Tenniel's. 

Craig Yoe's collection is pretty impressive, though it does allow a few rather lengthy adaptations to dominate the somewhat slender page count. This book could've have been half again the size and it would've been ideal. There are versions of the story here in which Alice (or a version of her) encounter the likes of the Man from Krypton and the teen from Riverdale. There are stories here by fantastic artists  such as Walt Kelly, Alex Toth, Jack Davis, Dan DeCarlo, Dave Berg, and Joe Shuster. 

Below are a few links to some of the more fascinating versions of Alice in this book such as two which showcase the character in vintage 50's horror tales and one a utterly riotous parody of the story. 

In this issue of the Ziff-Davis comic simply titled Alice (one of only two) she solves the flying saucer mystery among other things. To read it go here. 

Alex Toth does his usual outstanding artistic job on a very scary version of the Alice adventures, the story was tucked away nonchalantly in an issue of Standard's Lost Worlds. To read it go here. 

Charlton got into the act with another horror version of Alice in Wonderland which was done for the final issue of The Thing. To read it go here. 

Jack Davis knocks it out of the park with a delightful and raucous satire of the Alice doings in the pages of MAD. In this one Davis actually makes use of Tenniel's original drawings to give the story are real bizarre feeling of legitimacy. To read this masterpiece go here. 

There are many more images and stories in this tome, one purporting to tell the true story of how they came to be written and others adding whole worlds to Alice's misadventures. She even meets another 19th Century icon in the aptly named Alice in Wonderland meets Santa Claus (If you notice is the  rendition of Alice which is peeking out from behind the curtain on the cover of the Yoe collection.) Which reminds me to say have a Merry Christmas one and all. 

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The Toon Treasury Of Classic Children's Comics!

While The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics is divided into five categories ranging from "Funny Animals" to "Fantasyland", the real categories in this book according to editors Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly really fall between four artists -- Sheldon Mayer, Walt Kelly, John Stanley and Carl Barks. The editors admit as much and work from these giants of comic art dominate this collection regardless of the category a story might fall into. 

Chapter One is titled "Hey, Kids!" and celebrates such titles as Sheldon Mayer's Sugar and Spike (three stories) and Scribbly (one lengthy sequence of one-pagers), as well as two stories featuring Little Lulu by John Stanley. Dennis the Menace makes two appearances in this section and talents such as Jules Feiffer and Harvey Kurtzman are represented by Clifford and Egghead Doodle respectively. We are also treated to a story of Intellectual Amos by Andre LeBlanc from the pages of The Spirit sections. 

Chapter Two is dubbed "Funny Animals" and leading the way is Walt Kelly with a few "Uncle Wiggly" pages, a skewed fairy tale titled "Hickory and Dickory  Help the Easter Bunny", as well as an early Pogo story from Animal Comics. Mayer returns with a funny Three Mousketeers story and we get three Fox and Crow stories by Jim Davis. Donald Duck by Carl Barks is on hand alongside John Stanley's "Jigger". Throw in a Nutsy Squirrel and you have quite a bevy of beasts. 

Chapter Three titled "Fantasyland" delivers the goods as might be suspected. Lots more Walt Kelly with stories (four to be exact) from Fairy Tale Parade and a new name George Carlson shows up with some offbeat fairytale variations. John Stanley returns as does Little Lulu with two offerings. We get a story by Popeye animator Dan Gordon featuring a prototype of Droopy and MAD man Dave Berg is represented with two stories adapted out of Alice in Wonderland. Add in a little Supermouse by Milt Stein and it's a festive section indeed. 

Chapter Four is called "Storytime" and seems to be a section in which some oddball stuff finds inclusion such as more Pogo, more Intellectual Amos, and even a C.C. Beck story starring "The Big Red Cheese" himself  titled "In the Land of Surrealism". The latter is a delight. But the highlights of this section are by Carl Barks who has two Duck stories, one featuring Donald battling bees and the other with Uncle Scrooge and the boys venturing to the distant paradise of Tralla La -- one of comic's great classics tales. 

Chapter Five wraps it all up with under the heading "Weird and Wacky" giving the editors free reign. Such things as three Burp the Twerp one-pagers by Jack Cole, four Hey Look! one-pagers by Harvey Kurtzman, alongside  a J. Rufus Lion story by Mayer and a Patsy Pancake yarn by Milt Gross. Dr. Seuss offers up the peculiar classic "Gerald McBoing Boing" and Dick Briefer's Frankenstein plays music. John Stanley's Melvin the Monster tries to catch a mouse and it doesn't go well. The highlight though of this section are several pages of "Foolish Faces" as well a complete Powerhouse Pepper story by Basil Wolverton. 

The main significant  difference between this 2009 collection and the exceedingly similar Yoe Book collection from 2011 I examined last weekend, is that the latter was more interested in a diverse range of examples from the public domain to showcase what had existed in kids comics. This collection was more about the pure quality of the stories and sacrificing some variety. There's not much to criticize about either collection though if you have any fancy at all for light-hearted comic book tales. 

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Favorite MAD Artist Countdown #7 - Dave Berg!

While we wait for the end of the "Favorite Artist Countdown" to return next month, I'm taking the chance to look at one of my absolute favorite magazines -- MAD. MAD was a regular dose of satire in a world which was often not all that keen on looking askance at itself. The "Usual Gang of Idiots" held up a mirror to society and we all had to lean back and say that maybe, just maybe life deserved more smiles and fewer grimaces.

Leading off my list of MAD favorite artists is Dave Berg. Berg delivered his "The Lighter Side of..." sections with rock solid regularity. It wasn't the first thing I too a look at in a new issue of MAD but it was in the top five features which got my attention. Berg's looks offered a keen understanding of the middle-class suburban lifestyle which had blossomed after WWII, and he made fun of all generations. Berg did have that oddly charming incapacity of some older artists to draw convincing hippies, but that didn't stop him trying. Berg seemed always to want to keep it current and so looking at old strips is almost like exploring a catalog of the distinctive fashions which came and went in American pop culture. Berg came up in comics drawing all sorts of things, often for Atlas. But I've never seen any of that, I know him only from those monthly carefully crafted doses of worldly insight.

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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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The Lighter Side Of Superheroes!

This cover cracks me up. It's so absolutely over the top with the sundry tortures being administered to these now-in-the-public-domain Ace superheroes. This outrageous cover is the work of Dave Berg, the same artist who would become a staple of MAD magazine with his "The Lighter Side..." articles.


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