Mad's Bizarre Biz

"MAD's Bizarre Biz" is devoted to the wacky comedy of Don Edwing, and even begins with a brief biographical sketch of the writer-artist, entitled "Portrait of the Artist as a MAD Man." This explains how Edwing was born the same year that Walt Disney created Donald Duck and that he was named for the famous cartoon character...but eventually his name was changed to Donald (add rim shot here). Really, all you need to know is that Edwing considers himself to be a "Bizartist." His forte is the comic strip, although he does not have a set format in terms of the number of panels, so a gag could run away from three panels to six, although there are extremes of only one panel and a dozen, while the payoff usually deserves a rim shot. For example, a plane crashes into a man's house and the Real Estate Tax Commissioner immediately shows up with a new tax bill for improvements made to the house, because the man clearly just added "a new wing" to his house (add rim shot here). There is even an acknowledgment that some of these gags you can see coming, as is clearly the case with the "Loan Arranger" (draw out the first word and say the second quickly for a clue if necessary). If Edwing has a favorite situation to exploit for humor it is the old favorite of the guys chained to the wall in a castle dungeon. That is what opens this 1987 humor collection and there are several return visits. He also has a special fondness for cartoons involving firing squads, one of which ends the book. The only other you really need to know is that everybody has really big noses in Don Edwing's view of the world. There are five other collections of Edwing's work for "MAD" magazine, including "MAD's Sheer Torture," "MAD Variations," and "MAD Fantasy, Fables, and Other Foolishness," is if rim shot humor is right up your alley there are a few other paperback avenues for you to pursue.