P3D Re: Furshlugginer MADness

[jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Gabriel Jacob)]

Russ Ruhlen ponders,
>... So, I wondered if I was following the rapid growth and death of the 
>3-D craze in the reprints of Mad.  

Of course! MAD magazine perfectly reflects contemporary America.
Future historians will study MAD magazines for a sysopsis of the
decades events. The MAD organization has already seen fit to 
condense and chronicle the decades in their 3 volume edition of,
MAD about the Fifties (might interest some of folk on P3D!)
MAD about the Sixties
MAD about the Seventies  

Ron Labbe another distinguished scholar of MAD culture,
might be able to shed light on the rise and fall of 3-D
as reflected in the reprints of MAD. :-)

>Get your bets down: how many references will appear in reprint #5?  Had 
>the craze faded out of sight by September '54?

I think it did. From what I can gather, it seems it peaked in June 1954.
Issue #12.

According to the definite guide to MAD book,
Completely MAD - A History of the Comic Book and Magazine by Maria
Reidelbach, they only mention issue #12 with a satire on 3-Dimensions.
This sounds like Reprint #4 that you quoted. 

>April '54 to June '54, only two 
>measly references until... an ENTIRE ARTICLE showing how 3-D is 
>destroying the whole fabric of society, or, at least, Mad Magazine. 

What it says is, Three-D comics were all the rage when Mad ran
                 this deep-space extravaganza. Kurtzman and Wood
                 wreaked havoc with the conventions of comic books
                 in their depiction of a typical comic book writer
                 and two-headed 3-D artist giving an exposition on 
                 the 3-D technique. The second page of the story
                 explored the effects on the eyes of viewing 3-D.

The headline in the article was,
DDD (3-D) Comics Dept.: By now you are familiar with 3-D comic books!
You know that some 3-D books enclose ONE set of 3-D glasses... You
know some 3-D books enclose TWO sets of 3-D glasses!... We are proud
to announce that we of MAD are enclosing NO sets of 3-D glasses for
this, our first MAD story in... 3-DIMENSIONS!

>P.S.  I  don't know how many think Mad Magazine is appropriate for p3d, 
>just figured it might be out of place in tech-3d.

VERY! ;-) I recently interviewed Alfred E. Neuman (who incidentally
reminds me alot of David Letterman) and asked him what he thought
about the possible fragmentation of P3D. He replied, 

                          "What -- me worry?"

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