Memories of MAD: “If Famous Authors Wrote the Comics”

Most of us of my generation grew up with peak Mad through the reprint paperbacks that were omnipresent in the 1970s. That’s where I first encountered my all-time personal favorite piece, “If Famous Authors Wrote the Comics” from Mad #46 (April 1959), text by Frank Jacobs, and artwork by Wally Wood. In addition to having a distinctive visual style of his own, which I most strongly remember from his run on Marvel’s Daredevil in the mid-1960s, Wood was an expert visual mimic—in this piece, he accurately captures the drawing style of Charles Schultz, Ernie Bushmiller, Chester Gould, Harold Gray, and other iconic creators of the funny papers.

I’ve included the whole story below, and isolated my two favorites. The combination of Tennessee Williams and Little Orphan Annie is a particular mini-masterpiece, especially in the way Jacobs simultaneously captures both Williams’s southern affectations and Annie’s vintage 1930s slanguage: “Ah told yuh never to tell me thet, Little Annie…”

There were, however, a couple of omissions: Wood supplied a caricature of William Shakespeare, rendered as if he were a comic strip artist, seated at a large drafting table, with (presumably) his illustrations pinned up on a board behind him. And yet there was no specifically Shakespearian gag in the piece. Likewise, Jacobs and Wood somehow neglected to provide a famous author to detail the exploits of our favorite spinach-chomping sailorman, Popeye.

(Side note: the late Sheldon Harnick was a lifelong devotee of Gilbert & Sullivan and was proud to acknowledge their influence on his work. In one of our final conversations, I shared this G&S parody with him. He hadn’t seen it before—and he agreed was pretty brilliant.)

So I came up with some verbiage, and went to my friend Michael Kraus. With the help of AI, we managed to come up with this. (The visuals are by CHAT but the blame for the text falls on me.)

(PS: Mad magazine notwithstanding, there’s at least one previously documented instance when Popeye went all Shakespearian on us, spoofing The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet this time, in a 1940 Fleischer Brothers cartoon illustrated below.)

Coming soon:

If William Faulkner wrote “Li’l Abner”

If Hunter S. Thompson wrote “Doonesbury”

If Jack Kerouac wrote “Archie”

If Tom Stoppard wrote “Calvin and Hobbes”

Very special thanks to Elizabeth Zimmer, Rob Lester, & Dan Fortune for their expert proofing, hey!) Special Thanks again to Daniel Weinstein, Jordan Taylor, & Rob Waldman.)

Slouching Towards Birdland (Will Friedwald’s Substack) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Sing! Sing! Sing! : My tagline is, “Celebrating the great jazz—and jazz-adjacent—singers, as well as the composers, lyricists, arrangers, soloists, and sidemen who help to make them great.”
A production of KSDS heard Saturdays at 10:00 AM Pacific; 1:00 PM Eastern.
To listen to KSDS via the internet (current and recent shows are available for streaming) click here. Here is the running list of recent shows.
The whole series is also listenable on Podbean.com; click here.

Hello Bluebird! (SSS #211 2026-08-22)
Listen: + Playlist:

Buddy Greco @ 100 with Courtney Newman (SSS #210 2026-08-15)
Listen: + Playlist:

Jimmy Van Heusen: “On the Road with Bing & Bob”
(SSS #209 2026-08-08)
Listen: + Playlist:

Tony Bennett @ 100: “Ultimate Mr. Broadway” (SSS #208 2026-08-01)
Listen: + Playlist:

Louis Armstrong: The Great African-American Songbook
(SSS #207 2026-07-25)
Listen: + Playlist:

Bastille Day! Jacques Brel (SSS #206 2026-07-18)
Listen: + Playlist:

Jazz Goes Broadway! West Side Story
(SSS #205 2026-07-11)
Listen: + Playlist:

Judy Garland sings Harold Arlen (SSS #203 2026-06-27)
Listen: + Playlist:

July 4th Special—Great American Cities in Song (SSS #204 2026-07-04)
Listen: + Playlist:

Miles Davis @ 100: Sketches of Broadway (2026-06-24)
Listen: + Playlist:

200th Episode Special! Friedwald’s Favorites & Wilsci’s Winners
(SSS #200 2026-06-06)
Listen: + Playlist:

Miles Davis @ 100 | “Miles Ahead”
(SSS #202 2026-05-30 )
Listen: + Playlist:

Bobby Darin @ 90 | “By Request”
(SSS #201 2026-05-23)
Listen: + Playlist:

Jazz at Lincoln Center Swing University:
A Special video Session: Sinatra in the Sixties (click to view)
With Seton Hawkins & Will Friedwald (Thursday April 2, 2026)

Bing Crosby Birthday Special—Ultimate Broadway Songbook
(SSS #199 2026-05-16)
Listen: + Playlist:

The Sacred Music of Duke Ellington—Then and Now
(SSS #198 2026-05-09)
Listen: + Playlist:

TONY BENNETT REMEMBERED ON NY1
a video interview with Stephanie Simon and Will Friedwald 2023-07-23
Click Here

Cinco de Mayo:
The Ernesto Lecuona (and Margarita Lecuona) Songbook
(SSS #197 2026-05-02)
Listen: + Playlist:

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn, Johnny Burke, & Jule Styne Songbook(s) (SSS #196 2026-04-25)
Listen: + Playlist:

SLOUCHING TOWARDS BIRDLAND is a Substack newsletter by Will Friedwald. The best way to support my work is with a paid subscription, for which I am asking either $5 a month or $50 per year. Thank you for considering. (Thanks as always to Arlen Schumer for special graphics.) Word up, peace out, go forth and sin no more! (And always remember: “A man is born, but he’s no good no how, without a song.”)

Note to friends: a lot of you respond to my Substack posts here directly to me via email. It’s actually a lot more beneficial to me if you go to the Substack web page and put your responses down as a “comment.” This helps me “drive traffic” and all that other social media stuff. If you look a tiny bit down from this text, you will see three buttons, one of which is “comment.” Just hit that one, hey. Thanks!

Slouching Towards Birdland (Will Friedwald’s Substack) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.