GotPoetry.com > > Dave Berg Looks Around: A Not So Mad Book

GotPoetry?

Events

News

Poems

Poetry Venues

Submit News

Inside

Downloads

Exquisite Corpse

Games

Got Pictures?

Movies

Page Slam

Radio

Community

Blogs

Clubs

Staff List

Subscriptions

Supporters

Forums

Poetry Workshops

Marketplace

Book Store

Clothing

Karma

Product

Reference

Encyclopedia

Links

Rhyming Dictionary

Searches

Top 10

Wiki

Communication

Help Desk

User Info

Welcome Anonymous

Membership:

Latest: lostsoul104

New Today: 0

New Yesterday: 8

Overall: 9338

People Online:

Members: 6

Visitors: 104

Bots: 4

Staff: 0

Staff Online:

No staff currently online.

Paid Membership

Buy a paid membership and get more out of GotPoetry!

Advertise on the GotPoetry Advertising Network.

Get Published

Submit your poems, events and poetry news. No registration required.

Dave Berg Looks Around: A Not So Mad Book

DAVE BERG LOOKS AROUND

This time, we look at old haunts of the author's childhood reading and see if what he didn't like at age eight is still something that sucks.

For the past year or so I have been rediscovering my immature adoration for Mad Magazine. I've now read several books about Mad and its creators, as well as picking up the old paperbacks. As a kid, I was in love with those paperbacks. That's the hole my allowance money fell into. Sean Bolger and myself would buy the latest one from the drug store spinner rack and go to his basement and read our stack of Mad books. I love the ones by Don Martin, Sergio Aragones, AL Jaffee, but I was never too discriminating.

The ones I never bought, the ones I avoided, were the ones by Dave Berg. Dave Berg was the Mad Magazine buzz kill. He was the grown up hanging out with this high school aged parking lot dwellers, trying to act cool by using out of date slang. He did the Lighter Side feature every issue and it was lame. It was all about adults complaining about their domesticated suburban lives. I was a kid of 1970's suburbia, I was trying to escape that rot by reading Spy vs. Spy or Captain Klutz, not be reminded of it.

Mad was anarchy. It was about shaking up the expected until the expected got really nauseous and barfed all over the rug. It was saying the worst thing in a crowded room; it was not about Dave Berg's boors in leisure pants. Exhibit A.

I would read him in the mag if I had gone through everything else twice. He was the parsley sprig at the end of a steak dinner. It might clean your breath, but it usually stuck in your teeth. I was not going to spend my buck 25 on a Dave Berg paperback. That's for damned sure, bucko.

With all this MadNostalgia coursing through me, I decided it was worth the time to revaluate Mr. Berg (who contributed to Mad from the 60s until he passed away in 2002.) Also, I have now seen some of the comic work he did before joining Mad and was impressed. Perhaps he was just too mature for the eight year old Mad Reader I was. It was too sophisticated for the readership. So I picked a copy of Dave Berg’s 1975 paperback, Mad’s Dave Berg Looks Around.

After reading it, I still feel too juvenile to appreciate it and its domestic humor. The jokes seem like four panel sitcoms. I enjoyed looking at it as a time capsule of 1970s fashion. And one thing I didn’t notice as a pre-adolescent, Mr. Berg could draw sexy.

And all his male students were quite anti-establishmenty and hirsute.

But even now, I don’t want jokes about life insurance and sun lamps or how woman pack too much for a weekend trip.

I still want Spy vs. Spy killing each other. I still want Dan Martin booger jokes. I still want to ruin the value of the magazine by doing the Fold-In at the back cover. I want it all and childish. I suppose Dave Berg is a testament to Mad’s anarchy. They were free to do whatever they wanted, even if that freedom was to be square and middle of the road.

Much of the time I write about how the author of a children’s book is not cognizant of the audience, but in this case, the author could care less. This might not win a universal audience, but who cares? Those who love it will love it. Those of the rest of us can just not buy the book or flip to the next feature in the magazine or chose just to not read a column reviewing bad children’s books. You have the power.

That’s it. Here are some links to some good omnibus editions of Mad Magazine goodness.

www.amazon.com/Mad-Abo...059&sr=8-1

www.amazon.com/Mad-Abo...059&sr=8-1

www.amazon.com/Spy-vs-...144&sr=1-1

all illustrations are copyright 1975 by Dave Berg

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, April 17, 2008 (04:12:52) (2630 reads)

Associated Topics

"Features: Dave Berg Looks Around: A Not So Mad Book" | Login/Create an Account | 2 comments

The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

Re: Dave Berg Looks Around: A Not So Mad Book (Score: 1 )
by rykmcintyre on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 (10:15:48)

I was always a fan of Sergio's tiny illustrations that were tucked into margin spaces all over the book.

Picking a nit, though: isn't it Don Martin?

Reply to This | Parent

Re: Dave Berg Looks Around: A Not So Mad Book by DaveMac on Sunday, April 27