In February and April of 1956, Whitestone Publications Inc. entered the world of MAD magazine rip-offs with two issues of the hilariously titled, Lunatickle. Issue #1 was edited by Myron Fass and Pat Kahn, and featured a variety of master talents like Joe Kubert, Lee Elias, and Russ Heath, ribbing on everything from Peter Pan to sexless space. Having said that, we're actually going to take a look at a magician spoof featured in Issue #2, edited by Joe Archibald, and illustrated by the always awesome, THOIA fan favorite, Bob Powell. Dumminger Master Mentalist is a super silly send-up of actual real-life performer, Joseph Dunninger, often considered "the greatest mentalist of the 20th century", most notably during the vaudeville era, as well as on popular radio shows of the 30's - 50's (you can read more about him HERE.) The funniest thing of all about this post though, is that I don't actually have this issue of Lunatickle, BUT I do have the book Dunniger's Monument to Magic, by Jospeh Dunniger himself! That's right, 'ol Dunny had a real sense of humor and actually reprinted the full Lunatickle jab right there in his own book! And as much as I love stage magicians and MAD swipes, I have to admit the real reason I'm posting this story is because I'm insanely obsessed with the Powell illustration of that smiling lady with her lips sandpapered off on page 4, haha... holy moly, that's love at first sight!
3 comments:
OK, "Lunatickle" is a great name for a comedy mag!
Lots of good gags here; and some mad style fill in the empty space gags work (that's usually where these fall apart). Nudity on the splash but then we all know that Karswell found a copy of photoshop in the crypt so I trust nothing anymore! :)
The sandpaper gag is great! The whole Napoleon thing is timed and works well, this is a really good parody! The art is excellent. I was never the biggest fan of art + captions but I got a bunch of (sensible) chuckles out of this.
I love that the guy published this in his own book that's awesome.
I didn't know anything about Dunniger until now. Once again AEET provides information on things and people that have faded from the public eye over time.
In some images of Dumminger, he is portrayed as either a menacing horror host or a movie villain from a B movie horror film. On the second page, middle left panel, Dumminger's face looks similar to the poster to the 1974 Film 'Frightmare'.
Lastly, that lipstick gag would not have been out of place in EC, let alone Eerie or Creepy.
The only part of this story that really feels like sequential storytelling is the top two-thirds of page two. And that's a plenty weird page. A lot of the rest is made up of illustrated captions, more like a picture book. I kind of dig this methodology in MAD-esque humor mags; it sort of separates them from the feel and pace of standard comics.
That lipstick commercial is pretty great. It makes me pause and think about the gross-out violence, permitted under the cover of comedy, that was a hallmark of the particular Mad-style groove here. I remember distinctly being disturbed by it as a very young kid--all the blood and barf, the acne and welts, the veins and organs, the fish bones and rat infested garbage cans--before finally maturing into a tween who found it all so perfectly hilarious. That's the level of maturity is stuck at, for the record.
The art is lovely, but I can't figure out what is happening in every vignette of the splash. A lot of that page is covering rather auxiliary territory, story-wise.
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