tyler_crumrine6 Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) So I’m not very familiar with Mad comics, but my great grandfather had these in storage and I know basically nothing else about them. They almost look like some sort of test print with the markings on the top and sides, and the fact that they’re bound with twine. Would love if anybody had some insight on these, I can’t find anything. It has issues 1-6 Edited October 15, 2023 by tyler_crumrine6 Artifiction and Turnando 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KCOComics Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) I'm sure others have a more susesinct history, but it wasn't uncommon for people to take runs of comics and "bound" them together in a book. The comics are often trimmed to get the right fit. I'm not sure what the over hang is. As for the twine, I've seen some comics that came out of bound volumes that are held together by twine, so I imagine that was a fairly common / easy way to put the books together. Edited October 16, 2023 by KCOComics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherEric Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 I mentioned this thread in both the EC comics and the Mad Magazine threads, maybe somebody from there will have some ideas to add. My first thought is, how big are the covers? If they're bigger than the standard EC size, I'm guessing these might be from one of the Russ Cochran reprints rather than the originals. Other clues would be the paper stock of the interiors, and what's on the last page of each issue... is it the paid ad, or something else? Many of the reprints have the EC ads reprinted as well, so you would need to look for the paid ads. KCOComics and greggy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KCOComics Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 @EC ed @SOTIcollector Do either of you have any thoughts on this? I'm really curious about the overhang. Does that seriel number mean anything? Also that funky color grid on top? Could that be for production? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Man Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) The “funky color grid” are printer’s color bars. Used to measure the amount of CMYK for each color by a hand held denisitomer. These appear to be maybe un-trimmed and un-bound printer’s file copies. A great find! Was your great grandfather a printer? Edited October 16, 2023 by Robot Man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler_crumrine6 Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) I posted in some other forums as well and based on this page, it seems like they’re printing tests of Vol 1 of the Russ Cochran 1986 collection. I have a ton more pictures but the file limitations on here make it a pain to upload. My great grandfather had no ties to magazine/book printing to my knowledge. Sadly he is no longer with us so I can’t ask him. My grandfather was the one that found them in storage so I might see if he has any additional context. Even knowing that these are Russ Cochran test prints I haven’t located any other instances of something like this online. Edited October 16, 2023 by tyler_crumrine6 KCOComics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler_crumrine6 Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 Some more photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOTIcollector Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 This is really cool. Thanks for the tag, @KCOComics As I was posting that these came from the Russ Cochran set in 1986, in came the response from the OP verifying this. These are very cool, and if they had been from the original run of Mad in the 50's, they'd likely be unique and worth hundreds, possibly thousands. They are certainly scarce or rare, maybe even unique. Really cool items1 KCOComics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KCOComics Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 (edited) Congrats on owning a cool and unique piece. If you figure out how your great grandfather got ahold of these, I would love to hear the back story. Edited October 16, 2023 by KCOComics OtherEric 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpbooks01 Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 Looks like the guts of the trade paperback that Russ Cochran produced of the first 6 issues of MAD, untrimmed or a test. greggy and Turnando 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EC ed Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 On 10/16/2023 at 8:10 AM, KCOComics said: Do either of you have any thoughts on this? Thanks for the tag...but looks like you all have already gotten to the bottom of this - nice work! I've never seen these before either! Very cool! KCOComics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
