Thwak

    (Thwack, 2002)
™ and © Tool/Thwack Productions

The legend under the title on the cover reads, “America’s Favorite Humor Magazine — They Just Don’t Know It Yet.” That’s doubtful. On the contents page it says “Stupid Comics for Stupid People.” That seems more likely.

Thwak wants to be Mad in the worst possible way and it accomplishes that goal admirably — it’s Mad in the worst possible way. Most of the articles vary from derivative to gross to just not funny, with few bright spots in between. “The Refund” and “Before and After September 11th” show promise, but they’re going to have to lose articles like “101 Uses for a Turd.”

The Elvira parody, which acknowledges that it is a dated reference, is competently rendered. The art is more reminiscent of Cracked’s Nanny Dickering than anything from Mad, but the writing appears to be an excuse to run off as many parodies of monster movie names as possible. (The Fat Bum of the Opera?)

Especially bewildering is an editorial in which we are told how Carmine Infantino told them that “Thwak” was a bad name for a magazine, they agreed, but they named it that anyway.

— Jack Abramowitz
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