MAD #4 Sneak Peek: Svengoolie!

I had planned on waiting until the issue came out to post this, but ComingSoon.net had the scoop on MAD‘s Svengoolie feature in issue #4 yesterday, so I guess no need to keep it under wraps anymore. Here’s a look at the splash page of  the parody I drew in MAD #4, written by Ian Boothby. Be sure to visit that ComingSoon.net article as they have two of the interioir pages as well as the splash.  I also promised to explain what makes this parody different, but not unprecedented, in MAD.

A few people are wondering why horror TV host Svengoolie does not have a typical MAD spoof name, like “Svengooey” or something. That’s because he isn’t actually being spoofed here… he is appearing as himself. That’s why there is a © in the bottom right on page 1. Parodies of people or things don’t need copyright permission, but actually representing a person or character does. The gag with this feature is that all the reruns they show on the cable station the Svengoolie show appears on, MeTV (aka MehTV… THAT’S the parody part) start spilling into the classic horror movies Svengoolie plays. This was done with the blessing of Svengoolie aka Rich Koz himself.

So, is that unprecedented? Hardly. It’s actually a throwback from WAAAAY back. In the late 50’s, MAD had a series of features that included the radio/TV comedy duo “Bob and Ray”, Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding, illustrated by Mort Drucker. These comics used the duo’s classic character, radio/TV interviewer Wally Ballou (winner of 16 diction awards) played by Bob. The men he interviews in the features are portrayed by Ray. These MAD features were written by the late Tom Koch, who was a principal writer for Bob and Ray’s radio and TV programs, as well as for many years for MAD.

So, Svengoolie isn’t the first celebrity character to appear as himself in a collaborative feature in the pages of MAD… just the latest!

Now go out and buy a copy of the furshlugginer magazine, you clod!