When Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Gaines launched EC’s Mad comic book as a warmly received satirical magazine, a flood of imitators soon filled newsstands, but the first and best to follow in Mad’s footsteps (coinciding with the second issue of Mad magazine) was Snafu, edited and written by Kurtzman’s former boss: Stan “The Man” Lee! Snafu was packed with Marvel/Atlas’ top humor creators and, following the Mad playbook, filled pages with ad and news spoofs, alongside film, television, and book parodies like “The Blackboard Forest” by Russ Heath, “Pete Kelsey’s Booze” and “Bleed, You Bum!” by Joe Maneely, “Drugnet” by Howie Post, “Emily Toast’s Etiquette Page” by John Severin, and “Snafu’s Lovely Ladies” by Bill Everett, with production supervised by Marie Severin. Seen here is some of the most eye-popping work of Maneely’s short life, including great Hollywood caricatures done in a wash style. In this new volume in our Atlas Library collaboration with Marvel, Fantagraphics is tickled pink to present for the first time, the complete Snafu collection along with a history of Martin Goodman’s humor publications in all genres by editor Dr. Michael J. Vassallo.
