Saturday, November 15, 2014

Poe 1960, Pt. 1

(Continued from Poe 1959, Pt. 1)

MAD  55
Poe-Etic Injustice Dept:  "THE RAVEN"

So like, everybody remember that Harvey Kurtzman dude?  He split at one point, and Albert B. Feldstein stepped into the breach.  This was shortly after William Gaines decided to give the entire rest of the comic-book industry, who had corrupted the Comics Code to put him out of business, THE FINGER.
He transformed his highly-successful color comic, MAD, into an EVEN MORE highly-successful B&W magazine.  Excempt from the Code, it sold among the magazines.  And like, MAN-- it SOLD.

So it was that 6 years after MAD (the color comic) tackled Poe's...

     "THE RAVEN"

...MAD (the B&W magazine) decided to do it... AGAIN.  Wow.  But while Harvey Kurtzman kept every word of Poe's poem intact, and simply went wild with the pictures, writer Paul Laikin went completely off his head with the wordage.  Can you dig it?  Well, you'll have to... and groove on Mort Drucker's art while you're at it.  Mmm.

Hey.  Special thanks right now to "Pappy", without whom I might never have had a chance to read this myself.  What a guy!

Finally, a special note to the purists out there.  When published in the magazine, the first 4 pages were presented as 2-page spreads, requiring you to read across the top and then the bottom of both pages in sequence.  Obliviously, this would not work on this blog.  The pages, therefore, have been RE-FORMATTED to fit my screen.  If you have problems with your screen, well, that's not my problem.  ENJOY!

P.S.:  I really like the mouse!

MAD  55
cover by KELLY FREAS   (EC  /  June 1960)
"THE RAVEN"  /  Version 9
Adaptation by Paul Laikin  /  Art by MORT DRUCKER  /  Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Copyright (C) Entertaining Comics (EC).

Scan of MAD #55 from the GCD site
Scans of MAD #55 interiors from "Pappy"

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at The Poe Museum site.
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at the Biography site.


Visit the EC Fan-Addict Club Facebook group.
Visit the Kelly Freas website!
Read about Mort Drucker at Lambiek Comiclopedia!
Read about Mort Drucker at the Illustration Art site!

Read about The Raven at The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore site.
Read about the inspiration for The Raven at The Vintage News site.
Read about The Raven at the Mental Floss site.

Read the complete poem at the Poetry Foundation site.
See THE RAVEN Gallery of Illustrations!

     Audio / Video:
Hear the Basil Rathbone recording!
See the Vincent Price performance!
Hear the Christopher Lee recording!
Watch The Simpsons cartoon!

     Comics:
See the James William Carling RAVEN illustrations!
See the William Ladd Taylor RAVEN illustrations!
See the Gustave Dore RAVEN illustrations!
See the Galen J. Perrett RAVEN illustrations!
See the John Rea Neill RAVEN illustrations!   (coming soon!)

See the Ferdinand H. Horvath RAVEN illustrations!
Read the Harvey Kurtzman / Will Elder RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Wally Wood RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Mort Drucker RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Frank Springer RAVEN adaptation!

Read the Nico Rosso RAVEN adaptation!
Read the 2 George Woodbridge RAVEN adaptations!
Read the Richard Corben RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Peter Cappiello RAVEN adaptation!

Read the Paul Coker, Jr. RAVEN adaptation!   (coming soon!)
Read the Steve Ditko RAVEN story!
Read the Jeff Bonivert RAVEN adaptation!
     (Coming soon:)
Read the Ricardo Leite RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Jerry Gersten RAVEN adaptation!

Read the Gahan Wilson RAVEN adaptation!
Read the 1st Luciano Irrthum RAVEN adaptation
     at the Canibuk blog!
Read the 2nd Luciano Irrthum RAVEN adaptation
     at the Canibuk blog!
Read the Dave Morice RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Thomas Eide RAVEN adaptation!

Read the 2nd Richard Corben RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Eureka Productions RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Stuart Tipples RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Mangosta RAVEN adaptation!
Read the 3rd Luciano Irrthum RAVEN adaptation!

Read the Yein Yip RAVEN adaptation!
Read the David G. Fores RAVEN adaptation!
Read the 3rd Richard Corben RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Edu Molina RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Gustavo Del Valle RAVEN adaptation!

Read the R. Sikoryak RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Duncan Long RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Pete Katz RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Rebecca Tough RAVEN adaptation!
Read the Gareth Hinds RAVEN adaptation!

Read the Stefano Lei RAVEN adaptation!  (at Deviant Art)

See the CHRONOLOGICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
See the ALPHABETICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!

(Continued in Poe 1960, Pt. 2)

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