Occasionally I pick up a copy of MAD magazine and look
through its pages. To tell the truth I’m
not a big fan of MAD magazine ever since it shifted to full color.
I devoured each page of MAD magazine back in the 1960s and
1970s and sporadically during the 1980s and 1990s.
I have my favorite artists: Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Don
Martin, Sergio Aragones and Dave Berg.
Drucker was the king of caricatures, Davis visual gags,
Martin the bizarre, Aragones physical humor and Dave Berg quiet observant
humor.
Running Press presents, as part of its MAD Greatest Artists
series, Dave Berg Five Decades of “The Lighter Side of…”, with a Foreword by
Drew Friedman.
The consummate artist, Dave Berg was the master of situational
humor. His unique observations on
day-to-day events and popular culture phenomenon always generated a few
chuckles.
While not as flashy or stylized as other MAD artists’ work,
Berg’s characters looked like ordinary people caught in unusual
situations.
By following his career over 50 years the large hardbound
book offers the perfect opportunity to observe the maturation of an artist.
As with most young artists Dave’s style started out a bit
cluttered and packed with details. As
his style progressed and matured, his art, while not spare, became more finely
honed and to the point. Facial expressions
and body language overshadowed backgrounds and settings
.
Represented in the book are Dave’s “The Lighter Side of…”
strips and paperback compilations and material specifically drawn for paperbacks.
Unfortunately the world lost Dave back in 2002, but his
humor lives on in this delightful new collection.