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A MAD WORLD FOR STAR WARS FANS
By Keith Hagarty
 | | --Photo Courtesy Of Ocean County Library Join the darkside on January 13, as the Toms River branch of the Ocean County Library presents a retrospective of MAD magazine's satirical tribute to Star Wars. |
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"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" will become a lot closer on Sunday, January 13 as the headquarters of the Ocean County Library in Toms River will explore the history of some of MAD magazine's classic editions devoted to the legacy of Star Wars.
From its humble North California beginnings in the home of a young, brash filmmaker, George Lucas, Star Wars won a tremendous box office victory against all odds in 1977, at the time becoming the highest grossing movie in box office history.
MAD's "Usual Gang of Idiots" cashed in on the worldwide craze of Jedi battle mythical storylines, stealing a few laughs at the movie's expense, and soon took on the role of official lampoon of the Star Wars saga.
A self-proclaimed avid Star Wars fan since its inception, David Collingswood, 37, of Dover, can't wait to see the exhibit.
"I grew up on both," Collingswood said of the movie and the magazine. "I remember being all about Star Wars, having all
the toys, the Millennium Falcon,
the Creature Cantina, for sure - the whole nine yards."
With each ensuing episode in the Star Wars epic, MAD magazine turned up the mockery level, spending the next three decades making a farce of the Force and richly lampooning Lucas' intergalactic space adventure.
The Toms River branch on Washington Street will present the Star Wars saga's greatest moments as mocked by such MAD greats as Dick DeBartolo, Mort Drucker, Don Martin and Sergio Aragonés. For decades, MAD's illustrators and writers smirked at the striking similarities between the space battles created by Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic and by the magazine's Usual Gang of Idiots.
The first issue of Mad magazine was released in 1952 as a comic book, part of the line of E.C. Comics, published from the Lower East Side in New York City. The earlier years of the magazine were written almost entirely by Harvey Kurtzman, with the first issue exhibiting the cartoon talents of Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Will Elder, Jack Davis and John Severin.
The library welcomes all fans to gasp at the startling insights into R2-D2's love life; and marvel at the real reason why Lucas's lawyers never sued MAD.
Star Wars, as well as the tonguein cheek satirical humor of MAD magazine, has always been a classic favorite of 39-year-old Brett Hayman, of Bayville.
"I think it was like three years in a row I went out for Halloween as a different Star Wars character," he said. "Now my kids have started watching them (the original movies) all over again now that we got it on DVD. I think I even had some of those magazines back in the day. If I knew then that they (magazines) would actually be worth something today, I probably wouldn't have gotten rid of them."
For more information about the program, call 732-349-6200 or 609-971- 0514.
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