Shermlock Shomes!

[JimN]

Take a few minutes to read and laugh at this MAD classic, written by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by the incomparable Will Elder. This is one of my favorite comics of all time and I still find myself laughing hard at the final two pages, as Shomes explains how the crime was committed. It's brilliant stuff. Both Elder and Kurtzman really shine in this one.

http://jeffoverturf.blogspot.com/2011/05/shermlock-shomes-bill-elder-mad-mondays.html

[slurmo]

 

[aelfinn]

ill be checking this out as soon as i get home from work

[Jeppe]

Hilarious! Thanks for sharing, Jim 

[JimN]

Hilarious! Thanks for sharing, Jim 

You're welcome. That panel where Shomes is darting out of the fireplace, in flames, with a maniacal look on his face as he says "The roaring fire in the fireplace presented no obstacle since the murderer quietly pushed the logs aside before coming through"  is one of my all-time favorite comic book moments. The juxtaposition of what he is saying with what we are seeing is hysterically funny to me.

There's a panel earlier on that page where Shomes declares (in 3 separate word balloons):

"It is exactly as I suspected! Just as I suspected exactly! As I exactly suspected..."

That's vintage Kurtzman, a fine example of the odd, rhythmic wordplay he would use to get laughs. I don't know why it works but it does. It cracks me up every time.

[JimN]

For anyone who enjoyed that Shermlock Shomes story and isn't familiar with a lot of those early MAD comics, here's a link to another of the very best, Hah! Noon!, by Kurtzman and Jack Davis.

http://jeffoverturf.blogspot.com/2011/08/hah-noon-jack-davis-mad-mondays-day.html

One of the many treats of this story is seeing Jack Davis' inks. He was a fantastic inker but as his career moved forward, he used washes and watercolor a lot more than the straight india ink he used for EC.