"Panic #9"

This EC Comics reprint is a reflection of things to come. After the Comics Code nearly forced the company into bankruptcy, editor William Gaines decided to publish a comic in magazine form to avoid censors. That book would become MAD.

Panic is like MAD-lite. There’s plenty of parodies, puns, and other scathing attacks on modern society. You even see Gaines working out MAD in this comic with things like putting stories in categories listed as coming “from the -—- Dept.”or having the characters of a parody story give a lengthy monologue about their shortcomings. The humor is quite topical and is from the 1950s. So, some readers might not know who Ben Casey, MD was or why Marlin Perkins taught us about animal behavior.

Though not quite of the quality of MAD, this is a gem and worthy of the comic book hall of fame if only for being the grandfather of MAD Magazine.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.