Showcasing the Essentials 06

Mad for Decades

Written by Various authors

Art by Various artists

Mad Magazine has been for along time one of my favorite sources of parody and biting social commentary.And this is a hardcover reprint of 5 decades of the magazine.Divided up into 5 chapters,with each chapter focusing on a decade,this book is a good sampler of the best of Mad.It starts in the 50's and has the classic "Lone Stranger","Superduperman","Melvin of the apes" and others.Alot of the parodies in this decade have beautiful artwork by Wally Wood. One standout to me is "Starchie" a very funny parody of the Archie comics. Showing Starchie and Bottleneck as the bad apples most readers of the Archie comics wished they had been.It is full of subversive humor that takes the piss outta the squeeky clean image of the Archie Comics Group. The next chapter is of course the 60's.This is full of great sendups of the hippie culture and the entire Mod movement.My favorite is a great parody of "2001" which is titled "201 minutes of a Space Idiocy",a of course "Bats-man" a humorous take on the sixtie's favorite "Batman" tv show. Well anyone that has enough brains to read would know that the next chapter is the 70's. With many shots taken at disco and all various horrors that made up the 70's this is one of my favorite chapters in this tome.Next up is the chapter on the 80's,which is full of potshots taken at the greed and yuppies of the decade. And finally we close out the book with a chapter on the 90's. From grunge to gangsta rap nothing is left out. All through out the various chapters we get the many long running segments of MAD. Spy vs spy,the lighter side of...,and of course the amazing silent funnys from the man the myth the legend Sergio Aragones.This is a great "toliet" book. And can usually be found at most major bookstores on sale very cheap. Mad for Decades earns a perfect A+.