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COMPLETELY MAD

A HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK AND MAGAZINE

This copiously illustrated history of America's ``most successful humor magazine'' never takes itself too seriously, despite patches of banal social history and cultural analysis. Lots of sidebars cover all sorts of material Reidelbach (Miniature Golf, 1987—not reviewed) couldn't integrate into her main narrative, especially profiles of Mad's legendary publisher, William Gaines, and biographies of the many talented writers and illustrators he's employed over the years. Anarchic, irreverent, cynical, and absurdist, Mad began its nearly 40-year history as a four-color comic book edited by Harvey Kurtzman, who brought a new level of satiric sophistication to a medium reserved mostly for superhero dreck and cute funny animals. In fact, the early Mad parodied the funny pages with the same cleverness it would later bring to bear on advertising, movies, and TV. When the comic-book industry imposed new restrictions on itself in the mid-50's, Gaines transformed Mad into a magazine rather than submit it to the censors. While Kurtzman left for other projects, Gaines and his new editor, Al Feldstein, made Mad more accessible to a wider audience. Circulation grew from 325,000 to a high of 2.5 million, with a worldwide readership (in numerous translations and adaptations). Published domestically every 45 days, and with no advertising, Mad provoked the ire of social watchdogs everywhere- -nothing seemed sacred to the self-described ``usual gang of idiots'' who mocked the many icons of modern life. Serious cultural critics like Marshall McLuhan, Paul Goodman, and Dwight Macdonald all found the popular humor mag worthy of analysis as a genuine reflection of tumultuous times. Reidelbach strains when she describes Mad's worry-less mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, as ``an archetype of the Jungian sort,'' and her imitations of the Mad style are as annoying as the book's cluttered design. Nevertheless, it's a fine overview of a vital part of pop culture, and a must-read for true Mad ``fan-addicts.'' (350 color photographs, 200 b&w drawings.)

Pub Date: Nov. 18, 1991

ISBN: 0-316-73890-5

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991

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INSIDE THE DREAM PALACE

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF NEW YORK'S LEGENDARY CHELSEA HOTEL

A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.

A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.

Turn-of-the century New York did not lack either hotels or apartment buildings, writes Tippins (February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America, 2005). But the Chelsea Hotel, from its very inception, was different. Architect Philip Hubert intended the elegantly designed Chelsea Association Building to reflect the utopian ideals of Charles Fourier, offering every amenity conducive to cooperative living: public spaces and gardens, a dining room, artists’ studios, and 80 apartments suitable for an economically diverse population of single workers, young couples, small families and wealthy residents who otherwise might choose to live in a private brownstone. Hubert especially wanted to attract creative types and made sure the building’s walls were extra thick so that each apartment was quiet enough for concentration. William Dean Howells, Edgar Lee Masters and artist John Sloan were early residents. Their friends (Mark Twain, for one) greeted one another in eight-foot-wide hallways intended for conversations. In its early years, the Chelsea quickly became legendary. By the 1930s, though, financial straits resulted in a “down-at-heel, bohemian atmosphere.” Later, with hard-drinking residents like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan, the ambience could be raucous. Arthur Miller scorned his free-wheeling, drug-taking, boozy neighbors, admitting, though, that the “great advantage” to living there “was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually.” No one passed judgment on creativity, either. But the art was not what made the Chelsea famous; its residents did. Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Phil Ochs and Sid Vicious are only a few of the figures populating this entertaining book.

A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.

Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-618-72634-9

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013

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HUMANS OF NEW YORK

STORIES

A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.

Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.

Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.

A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4

Page Count: 432

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015

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