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GOOD DAYS AND MAD

Name: GOOD DAYS AND MAD
Author: Dick DeBartolo
ISBN: 1-56025-077-1

A HYSTERICAL TOUR BEHIND THE SCENES OF MAD MAGAZINE

by Dick DeBartolo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 18, 1994

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A pop-culture prodigy and shameless self-promoter, DeBartolo manages to make MAD's 42-year history as sanitized as a Disney classic. There's something truly Orwellian about the effort to write Harvey Kurtzman, the creator of MAD, out of the magazine's history. Which is what DeBartolo does, commemorating instead his late boss, William Gaines, the owner of EC Comics, MAD's parent company. DeBartolo didn't join the ``usual gang of idiots'' until the early 1960s, long after Kurtzman had left because Gaines refused to give him a larger share of the comic book. DeBartolo doesn't seem to know the simple reason MAD eventually changed from a comic to a magazine: The oppressive Comics Code Authority did not regulate magazines. Frank Jacobs provided a much better biography of Gaines (The MAD World of William Gaines, not reviewed), and Maria Reidelbach's Completely MAD (1991) demonstrated a more certain grasp of the facts. So why DeBartolo's gimmicky memoir? Partly to recount his own precocious career: first contribution to MAD at 15; writing for TV at 16; saving The Match Game from an early death by adding humor to the questions; and contributing more pieces to MAD in 33 years than any other writer. Though coy about his own personal life, DeBartolo contributes to the legend of Gaines: his combination of cheapness and extravagance; his sloppy demeanor; his insatiable appetites; and his proclivity for adolescent pranks. DeBartolo loves promoting MAD so much that he reproduces the publicity slide show he hawks around college campuses. He also adds to the stories about MAD's famous group bonus vacations around the world, though a number of his anecdotes are recycled. Missing from this memoir are the great MAD artists Wally Wood and Will Elder, though there are endless ``forewords'' by some of the magazine's stalwart contributors. For MAD purists, this lumpy narrative is further proof that, after Kurtzman, it's been all downhill.

Pub Date: Nov. 18, 1994

ISBN: 1-56025-077-1

Page Count: 352

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.