Wood Work

In the early 60s I was a huge Mad Fan, even sending off for the EC checklist for Mad info. At a 2nd hand magazine store I scored a big ol' box of old beat up Mads. I had a trick of using a magnifying glass to look over the art—there was so much going on in any given panel. Especially Wood work. Look at this 1st panel, just 1/3 of a page! It portrays close to 50 humans (including beautiful women), a couple of elephants, horses, 2 leopards, monuments and the great pyramids! It's all perfectly in scale, a beautiful composition, and funny to boot! Wow! Imagine if you're an artist and your assignment sheet says you have to include all this in one small panel.

I am sad to say that in my 30s I felt overwhelmed by my collection and sold off all my Mads. All I have now are tearsheets I kept for the morgue. But the good news is, I've got quite a few of those, Wood, Mort Drucker, Kelly Freas, that kind of stuff that I will be posting now and then.

 

What a lot of work for 1/3 of a page!

When I was younger I didn't appreciate some of these panels like I do now.