Will Pfeifer's Blog, page 44

Will Elder Weekends: Still more Starchie!

As promised, here's more from "Starchie!," the classic Kurtzman/Elder satire from the 12th issue of Mad. As you can the Betty-and-Veronica (or, in this case, Biddy-and-Salonica) rivalry has been going on for well over half a century, and naturally, Kurtzman and Elder offered their twisted take on this teen love triangle. I love how the visual gags are both corny and innocent (spades to go with those iconic comic book hearts) and dark and ominous (Biddy was carrying quite the stash of drugs, wasn't she?).

And then there's Salonica, who provokes a much less blase reaction from our teen-aged hero...


Bottleneck, by the way, is looking down at the street because, just a panel or so earlier, Starchie, broken bottle in hand, backed poor Biddy out the window. See? I told you the jokes were dark...

Next week: Starchie's typically teen-aged home life!

RIP John Severin

The regularly scheduled episode of "Advance Team Tuesdays" won't be seen this week because I just learned that John Severin, one of the all-time greats, has passed away at the age of 90.

Severin had a long, long career in comic books, drawing for most of the major publishers and working with some legendary collaborators, including Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder. He did groundbreaking work for Kurtzman's war comics, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, and illustrated some of the first genre satires that appeared in Mad.

But, of course, that's not where I first encountered him. No, like every other budding reprobate in my generation, I first saw the work of John Severin in the pages of Cracked. Severin handled most of the movie and TV satires published within those pages, along with plenty of other stories besides. By most accounts he was virtually responsible for the very existence of the magazine, being the name talent that held it all together. A consumate pro, he delivered beautifully rendered pop culture spoofs month after month after month. It was his version of Luke Skywalker that I copied when I made my own "Star Wars" comic book parodies, and unlike Mad, which seemed more "grown-up" to my young eyes, Cracked always seemed to focus on the stuff I loved, all brought to amusing life by Severin: "Star Wars," "The Six-Million Dollar Man," and the Fonz. Boy, I'll bet Severin got sick of drawing Henry Winkler caricatures.

It wasn't until later, when I first studied those Mad comic book reprints, that I realized the artist I loved so much in Cracked had also done work for Mad. My mind, which saw those two mags are bitter, bitter rivals, could barely process this information, but it did give me a new source for Severin art. When I discovered old Marvel westerns a year or so later and then Kurtzman's war comics a while after that, my appreciation for Severin's talent (and, heck, his sheer stamina) just kept growing.

Which brings me to a convention in Chicago years ago. Some original art dealer -- I have no idea who it was -- had a stack of pages off to the side that he was obviously trying to unload so he didn't have to cart them back to his store. I paged through them, not expecting to find anything (a) I wanted or (b) could afford. And then I saw this...


I knew it was Severin art -- that inking, those figures and the beautiful use of duotone shade left no doubt -- but I had no idea what it was from. Turning it over, I saw a stamp that said "Possession of this work of art does not convey to the Possessor the right to copy, reproduce, or publish the same. Such rights are expressly reserved to William M. Gaines, Agent, as Copyright Proprietor."

OK, so it was obviously EC, and judging by the subject matter, either Two-Fisted Tales or Frontline Combat. And then I nervously looked up at the price, all set to put it back in the stack...

Thirty-five dollars.

Thirty-five dollars.

For someone who'd loved Severin's work since before he can remember, it was a bargain. Heck, for anyone, anywhere at anytime, it was a bargain. A huge bargain. I don't know if the dealer knew what he had or not, but I did know one thing: I knew I had thirty-five dollars. And now I have that page.

But I'm still not sure exactly which issue it's from. Any ideas?

Will Elder Weekends: More Starchie!

I've blogged before about "Starchie!," the classic Kurtzman/Elder takedown of America's favorite teenager that originally appeared in Mad #12 (June 1954). A later Kurtzman/Elder Archie satire, the notorious "Goodman Goes Playboy," is more notorious, and Archie's lawyers took the boys to court over so-called "copyright infringement," and as a result, the story could never be printed again.

("Never" is, of course, a relative term. The Comics Journal reprinted the entire story a few years back and the sky didn't fall down, and "Goodman Goes Playboy" is easy to find now. Very easy, in fact. But, as usual, I digress.)

But, as great as "Goodman Goes Playboy" is -- and it's pretty great, believe you me -- it doesn't have the visceral punch of "Starchie!" A story that ends with Archie's pals (and a lot of other classic comics characters eagerly signing their souls over to the devil is dark, don't get me wrong, but "Starchie!" is even darker -- and don't forget, unlike "Goodman Goes Playboy," which appeared in the grown-up magazine Help, "Starchie!" appeared in the pages of a full-color, 10-cent, aimed-at-kids comic book. Just like the real Archie.

Like I've said before, I encountered it decades later in a Mad reprint, but I was a kid when I saw it and the damned thing really got under my skin. I'd never seen satire like this, savage stuff that took beloved comic book icons and recast them as sweaty, desperate, unnervingly earthy human beings. Just look at Mr. Weatherbee -- er, Weathernot -- in this panel from early in the story...


Twitchy, horny and drunk. Not the sort of image of a high school principal you'd see in most comic books, whether 58 years ago (when it was published), 38 years ago (when I first read it) or, for that matter, now. This is where I think Elder gets sold short when he's described as a great mimic. That panel -- and every panel in the story -- goes beyond mimicry, adding a layer or horror and realism to achieve something genuinely powerful (and genuinely funny). It's the reason I've never forgotten this story, and it's the reason I'd rank it with the greatest achievements in comic book history -- "Watchmen," "Love & Rockets," "David Boring" and other Mad classics, like "Superduperman!" and "Bringing Back Father!"

And it's the reason I'll be bringing you more from "Starchie!" in the next couple of weeks. So get comfortable.

Will Elder Weekends: By jove, Shomes! You're on fire!

Just because I finally got around to watching the excellent BBC "Sherlock" series that transported our heroes to modern day London, I thought I'd post a panel from one of the Kurtzman-Elder "Shermlock Shomes!" parodies.

This one is from issue 7 of Mad, cover dated Oct./Nov. 1953. It's typically riotous story, with all the characters (especially Holmes) acting like maniacs and Elder jamming the panels with every joke he can think of. (Incidentally, though I worship at the altar of Elder's ability to perfectly mimic other artists' styles, sometimes I think it's in stories like this one, where he's drawing in his own style, that he really cuts loose and shows us what he can do).

And so, with all that blather out of the way, here's a panel of the world's greatest detective proving a point by setting himself on fire. Enjoy!

Advance Team Tuesday: A Tale of Two Couches

Here, for no reason in particular, I thought I'd share a couple of comic book panels. One is from "The Advance Team," that graphic novel all the cool kids are talking about that you'll be able to buy in just a couple of months. The other is from a long-lost issue of "Violent Man," my own mini-comic, that came out way back in 1994. The only thing in common? The both feature rudderless young men slacking on couches.

First, from "The Advance Team"...

,Our hero, one Zack McKinley, lounges after a hard day of delivering pizzas and watches some TV. There's a cheesecake element (that poster on the wall), plenty of junk food (get a load of that coffee table) and a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars visible somewhere in the panel. It's drawn by German Torres, by the way, which is one reason it's a big improvement over this panel...

That's the one from "Violent Man," written by, drawn by and (yeesh) starring yours truly. As before, we've got the cheesecake element (a reference to the 1990s "fitness" show "Bodyshapers" (actually, as I've since learned, it was called "Bodyshaping," meaning I got it wrong all those years ago), some junk food (the Violent Man Snaps cereal -- hey, I thought it was clever joke) and, barely visible (but I assure you they are there) a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars. We've also got a pair of jeans with ripped knees and a shirt from the Linus collection, but after all, it was the 1990s.
Also, notice German took the time to drawn an actual background. I could barely make the effort to draw my own couch and a big meaningless spotlight on the wall behind me. Art like that -- meaning the top panel -- is just one reason you need to put "The Advance Team" on your shopping list.
By the way, you can buy that issue of "Violent Man" -- it's part of my complete self-published small-press collection, "Late Nights at Kinkos." Just click on the link to the side of this blog post. Who says I'm not shameless about self-promotion?

Will Elder Weekends: Restaurant!

The first Will Elder stories I remember seeing in Mad reprints during my misspent youth were "Starchie!" and "Mole!," but the first Will Elder story -- make that panel -- that I remember being impressed -- make that astounded -- by for the sheer technique on display was this one, the opening splash from "Restaurant!" from Mad #16, Oct. 1954...

Go ahead, click on it -- because, believe me, you aren't going to get the full impact at that small size. Elder packs what I count to be almost 100 figures into that single panel, and what's more, he makes every single one of them different, clearly defined and, most importantly, funny. And that's not even counting the myriad jokes packed into the panel, from RCA Victor dog peering into the guy's mouth to the gastronintestinal mural on the wall to the surprisingly grim fortune held up by the cutout figure near the door.
In other words, this panel packs more into a single image than most comic books -- heck, most entire runs of comic books -- pack into hundreds of pages -- and it's not the only panel in the story. In fact, it's not even the only panel on the page. How Elder's arm didn't just fall off one day I'll never know.

Advance Team Tuesday: The official promotional juggernaut kicks into gear

Sorry about the lack of the usual Advance Team Tuesday posting last week, but things were, shall we say, in a bit of disarray.

This week, though, I'd like to point you in the direction of the official "Advance Team" page over at Macmillan's site. Here's the synopsis of the book:

"From veteran graphic novel writer Will Pfeifer and stellar newcomer Germán Torres, a darkly comic science fiction thriller sure to grip readers!

Zack McKinley was just another twenty-something pizza delivery boy before he discovered that his pop culture idols are actually the advance team of an alien invasion.Now, encouraged and aided by his (probably insane) uncle, Zack must track them down, one by one, and kill them before the invasion can begin. But the advance team has no intention of letting Zack get in their way, and soon the authorities are hunting for a celebrity serial killer in a pizza delivery jacket.

As his life slips out of control, Zack finds only more questions. Why are the aliens here? What do they have to do with him? Is it too late to stop them before the Earth is conquered? And what if he has simply lost his mind?"

Heck, I'd buy that! You?

Books of the Year, Part 5: Are you a psychopath?

I do read more than comic books, you know. In fact, one of my favorite books of 2011 was Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test," a funny, scary, fascinating look at madness in the modern world.

I love the way Ronson attacks a topic. He starts out with a question he wants to answer or an idea he wants to explore -- in this case, a strange puzzle in the form of a book that was being sent to the world's top neurologists -- and he lets the knowledge he uncovers lead him wherever it will. In "The Psychopath Test," that journey ranges from L. Ron Hubbard's old manor house to England's notorious Broadmoor psychiatric hospital to the lavish living room of "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap. All those destinations -- and many, many more -- are linked by the idea of madness, specifically psychopathy, specifically the various variations of psychopathy: which ones are dangerous, which ones are "useful" and which ones are walking past us every day on the street.

Like Ronson's other books, "The Psychopath Test" is constantly surprising, with some new astonishing fact or person arriving with every turn of the page. (Wait 'til you meet ex-spy David Shayler.) The last thing I want to do is spoil any of those surprises, so all I'm going to say is you need to read this book.

OK, I'll add one more thing: I enjoyed "The Psychopath Test" so much that as soon as I was done with it, I re-read Ronson's other two books, "Them: Adventures with Extremists" and "The Men Who Stare at Goats." You really need to read those two, too.

Will Elder Weekends: Still beating the heat!

Here, in honor of winter continuing to make up for lost time here in northern Illinois, are a couple more Will Elder-drawn panels from the "Hot Weather Photos" feature from way back in 1954's Mad 29.

Books of the year, Part 4: If this book were true, I'd be moving to Canada right now

Seth has been mixing fact and fiction in his comic books since the early days of Palookaville, when he convinced everyone that "Kayo" was a real cartoonist in "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken." In subsequent books like "Wimbledon Green" and "George Sprott," Seth went from a single fictional cartoonist to create entire worlds of parallel history, with TV stations, comic book publishers and other elements of pop culture that don't really exist, but seem like they almost, just barely could. And should.

"The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists" (or "The G.N.B Double C" for short) is his latest excursion into this fictional universe. Like "Wimbledon Green," it's a small hardcover and focuses on comic book history that never was (well, mostly). But like "George Sprott," it creates a complex world of its own, but one that's almost completely seen from a distance, with its best days far in the past.

The entire book is a tour of the GNB Double C building in Dominion (there were, as Seth points out, other branches) and, in a digression near the end, the vast Northern Archive Building located. The unnamed narrator (obviously Seth) takes us through the halls of the old building, pointing out galleries, lounges, ballrooms, studios and other locations, all rarely used now but once the site of decades of cartooning glory.

It's almost completely fiction (except for mentions of real cartoonists, like Canadian legend Doug Wright), but it's seductively believable. You know, for instance, that there never was a comic book called "Kao Kuk" about an Eskimo astronaut, but Seth's description -- especially the legendary issue 87, "The Death of Kao Kuk" -- is so evocative that you wish it really existed. As the story continues and the stories within the story get stranger and stranger -- "Canada Jack," the hero who walks everywhere and hangs out with Snoopy (yes, that Snoopy); "The Great Machine," a strange, foreboding art comic; and the description of Northern Archive itself, which seems almost mythical.

It's all impossible, of course, but Seth tells it all with such a sense of deadpan seriousness -- and, of course, a sense of underlying sadness -- that he makes you wish it was all real. I'd love to actually read The Great Machine, take the train through the snow to the Northern Archive, have a few drinks in The Forest Room (with its tree-like pillars) and hole up in one of the "monk-like cells" in the GNB Double C building and create a comic book. I read about a lot of fictional worlds, but there are few I've wanted to actually exist as much as the one in this book.

And, of course, being from Seth, the entire book is beautifully designed, with a gold-embossed cover and end pages filled with panels from "Kao Kuk" and "Canada Jack". There's even a model of the GNB Double C building in the opening pages, along with actual photos of the society's most prestigious awards. If you like comic books -- or if you ever did like comic books, the reality or the idea -- this book belongs on your shelf. It might not been the absolute best book of the year -- that Jaime story in Love and Rockets 4 is tough to beat -- but it was my favorite.