Mad
#1
(October-November 1952)
EC,
1952 Series
- Volume
- 1
- Price
- 0.10 USD
- Pages
- 36
- Indicia Frequency
- bi-monthly
- On-sale Date
- 1952-07-10
- Indicia / Colophon Publisher
- Educational Comics Inc.
- Brand
-
EC An Entertaining Comic
- Editing
- Harvey Kurtzman (credited) (editor); Bill Gaines (credited as William M. Gaines) (managing editor)
Issue Notes
On sale date as listed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries, Periodicals, 1952, page 145, registration number B367574.
Had a print run of 400,000 copies per Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files on William Gaines and EC Comics, as reported by a confidential informant to the Bureau. From Muckrock.com Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of 27 January 2012 (https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/comic-book-publis…), page 27, retrieved 26 February 2017.
Had a print run of 400,000 copies per Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files on William Gaines and EC Comics, as reported by a confidential informant to the Bureau. From Muckrock.com Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of 27 January 2012 (https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/comic-book-publis…), page 27, retrieved 26 February 2017.
[no title indexed]
cover / 1 page
- Script
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Pencils
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Inks
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Colors
- Harvey Kurtzman (see notes); Marie Severin ? (coding for separations)
- Letters
- Ben Oda ?
- First Line of Dialogue or Text
- That thing!
- Genre
- satire-parody
- Reprints
-
in Mad (Superior, 1952 series) #1 ([circa November 1952]) -
in Mad Special [Mad Super Special] (EC, 1970 series) #9 (1972) - in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986), #1 (1986)
- in Mad about the Fifties (Little, Brown, 1997 series) (1997)
- in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #1 (Summer 1997)
-
in Tommy og Tigern (Bladkompaniet / Schibsted, 1989 series) #8/1999 ([august] 1999) [0.4 page] - in Millennium Edition: Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad 1 (DC, 2000 series) [Direct Sales] (February 2000)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
-
Indexer Notes
See cover to Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures (Disney, 1990 series) #11; Batman: Gotham Adventures (DC, 1998 series) #13; Smult (Bladkompaniet, 2002 series) #5/2002 (poster); Gorilla (Egmont Serieforlaget, 2003 series) #1/2003 (illustration).
Marie Severin addressed on at least two occasions the coloring of art created or edited by Harvey Kurtzman. In remarks published in 1995, she said “Kurtzman colored his own art, especially on covers.” And in response to a 1986 question about Kurtzman and MAD covers, she said “Now I might have interpreted, but I don’t remember. I think he did every one of them. I might have helped out with some production or something, but it’s all Harvey” (Ringgenberg 2016, 88).
_________
References:
Cassell, Dewey, with Aaron Sultan. 2012. “The Artists of EC Comics” (reprinting Severin 1995). In Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress of Comics. 46–47. Raleigh: TwoMorrows Publishing.
Ringgenberg, Steven. 2016. “Marie Severin.” In The Comics Journal Library Vol. 10: The EC Artists Part 2, edited by Michael Dean, 84–95. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books.
Ringgenberg, Steven. [2016] 2018. “An Interview with Marie Severin.” The Comics Journal, September 5. Accessed June 18, 2023. https://www.tcj.com/an-interview-with-marie-severin.
Severin, Marie (John Province, transcriber [uncredited]). 1995. “Mostly about Color.” In CFA-APA 36, January.
[no title indexed]
Mad Mumblings / letters page / 1 page
- Reprints
- in Mad Strikes Back (Ballantine Books, 1955 series) #491K (February 1961) [figures only], #01564 (March 1969) [figures only]
- in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
-
- Keywords
- editorial
Indexer Notes
On inside front cover; no letters.
Art credits identified in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1.
Hoohah!
Terror Dept. / comic story / 8 pages
- Script
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Pencils
- Jack Davis (signed as
JACK DAVIS) - Inks
- Jack Davis (signed as JACK DAVIS)
- Colors
- Marie Severin
- Letters
- Ben Oda
- Genre
- humor; horror-suspense; satire-parody
- Characters
- Galusha; Daphne; Melvin The Caretaker; two unnamed Silver Avengers kids
- Synopsis
- Two youngsters run out of gas and enter a house they think is haunted.
- Reprints
- in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986)
- in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #1 (Summer 1997)
- in Millennium Edition: Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad 1 (DC, 2000 series) (February 2000)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
-
in Cent pour cent (CNBDI, 2010 series) (2010) [Page 8], (2010) - in Mad's Original Idiots Jack Davis (EC, 2015 series) (2015)
- in Mad (EC, 2018 series) #22 (December 2021)
-
Indexer Notes
A parody of the E.C. horror comics stories.
Blobs!
Science-Fiction Dept. / comic story / 7 pages
- Script
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Pencils
- Wally Wood (signed as Wood)
- Inks
- Wally Wood (signed as Wood)
- Colors
- Marie Severin
- Letters
- Ben Oda
- Genre
- humor; science fiction; satire-parody
- Characters
- Melvin; Alfred
- Synopsis
- Alfred outlines a terrible thought he has about the end of humanity.
- Reprints
- in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986)
- in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #1 (Summer 1997)
- in Millennium Edition: Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad 1 (DC, 2000 series) (February 2000)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
- in Cent pour cent (CNBDI, 2010 series) (2010) [Page 5]
- in Mad's Original Idiots Wally Wood (EC, 2015 series) (2015)
- in Mad (EC, 2018 series) #30 (April 2023)
-
Enter Cosmo McMoon!
Cosmo McMoon / text story / 1 page
- Genre
- humor; satire-parody; science fiction
- Characters
- Captain O'Malley; Omar Kayak; Mrs. Kayak; Cosmo McMoon
- Synopsis
- Cosmo solves(?) a missing person case.
- Reprints
- in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986)
- in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #4 (Summer 1998)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
-
Indexer Notes
Text story with an illustration.
Art credits identified in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1.
Crow Vadis?
text story / 1 page
- Genre
- humor
- Characters
- Tiberius O'Leary
- Synopsis
- Story of how a Roman soldier invented the chalkboard eraser.
- Reprints
- in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986)
- in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #1 (Summer 1997)
- in Millennium Edition: Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad 1 (DC, 2000 series) (February 2000)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
-
Indexer Notes
Text story with an illustration.
Art credits identified in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1.
Ganefs!
Crime Dept. / comic story / 6 pages
- Script
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Pencils
- Bill Elder (credited as B. Elder)
- Inks
- Bill Elder (credited as B. Elder)
- Colors
- Marie Severin
- Letters
- Ben Oda
- Genre
- humor; crime; satire-parody
- Characters
- Bumble; Bumble's boss
- Synopsis
- A perfect crime is hatched but Bumble fumbles.
- Reprints
- in Son of Mad (New American Library, 1959 series) #S1701 (October 1959)
- in Son of Mad (Warner Books, 1974 series) #7 (88-760) (January 1979)
- in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986)
- in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #1 (Summer 1997)
- in Millennium Edition: Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad 1 (DC, 2000 series) (February 2000)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
- in The Son of Mad (ibooks, 2003 series) (August 2003)
- in Mad's Original Idiots Will Elder (EC, 2015 series) (2015)
-
Varmint!
Western Dept. / comic story / 7 pages
- Script
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Pencils
- John Severin (credited as J. Severin)
- Inks
- John Severin (credited as J. Severin)
- Colors
- Marie Severin
- Letters
- Ben Oda
- Genre
- humor; western-frontier; satire-parody
- Characters
- Textron Quickdraw; Saddlesore; Kickiminabelly Kelly; Slippery Sam; The Pig-Faced Kid
- Synopsis
- Textron is hunting the killer of Melvin and kills every suspect.
- Reprints
- in The Complete Color Mad (Russ Cochran, 1986 series) #1 (1986)
- in Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad (EC, 1997 series) #1 (Summer 1997)
- in Millennium Edition: Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad 1 (DC, 2000 series) (February 2000)
- in The Mad Archives (DC, 2002 series) #1 ([September] 2002)
-
Editing
Related Scans
Series Information
Table of Contents
-
0.
["That thing!"]
-
1.
[no title indexed]
Mad Mumblings -
2.
Hoohah!
Terror Dept. -
3.
Blobs!
Science-Fiction Dept. -
4.
E.C. Fans!
Weird Fantasy -
5.
Enter Cosmo McMoon!
Cosmo McMoon -
6.
[no title indexed]
Picture Stories -
7.
Crow Vadis?
-
8.
Ganefs!
Crime Dept. -
9.
Varmint!
Western Dept. -
10.
Super Powerful!
Consumers Mart -
11.
["I gained 53 lbs. of shapely power-packed muscles!"]
Jowett Institute of Physical Training -
12.
How To Fix Any Part of Any Car
Motor Book Dept.
This issue was modified by, among others
- David B
- Ray Bottorff Jr
- Chris Boyko
- Nick Caputo
- Peter Croome
- Bill Devine
- Hector G. Dueñas G.
- Jan Roar Hansen
- Katy Hayhurst
- Jerry Hillegas (R.I.P.)
- Michael Hoskin
- Steve Jenner
- R. S. Martin
- Donald Dale Milne
- Tony R. Rose
- Jim Van Dore
- Terry Watkins
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