Monday Mars Madness VENUS COMICS "Invasion from Mars!"

Orson Welles wasn't the only one to tell this tale...

...but this never-reprinted story takes a slightly different turn!

While the scripter for this story from Atlas' Venus #13 (1951) is unknown, the artist is Dave Berg, who would make a name for himself as one of the mainstays of MAD Magazine with his Lighter Side of... feature!
Berg started at the beginning of the Golden Age as one of the Eisner/Iger Studio artists providing material in various genres for Quality Comics and Fiction House.

He eventually went solo doing stories and covers for St John, Toby, Ziff-Davis, Dell, Fawcett, Archie, and, as you can see here, Timely/Atlas, before finally landing at EC doing one war story and then switching to MAD as of #34, becoming one of the steadiest of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" (as the contributors referrred to themselves).

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Dave Berg

Five Decades of the Lighter Side

Monday Madness FAIRY TALES "David and the Dragon"

An updated version of Lewis Carroll's Alice wasn't Dave Berg's only foray into fantasy...

...there was also the cover feature for the first issue of Alice's Ziff-Davis Comics stable-mate, Fairy Tales!

(Yes, I know it says "#10", but it's the first issue!)

The "look" of this strip is totally-different from the other Ziff-Davis material by Berg we've presented.

But, keep in mind that Dave got his start working for the Eisner-Iger Studio in 1940.

One of the attributes they looked for in their artists was the ability to mimic other illustrators' styles...including Eisner's own!

It's possible he was instructed by editor Jerry Siegel to go for a "look" similar to Walt Kelly's on his successful and popular Dell Comics Fairy Tale Parade and Mother Goose stories!

But when he started work on Alice, Siegel let him go back to his "normal" look!

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Dave Berg

Five Decades of the Lighter Side

Monday Madness ALICE "...and the Man Who Made the Weather"

We've come to the end of the 1950s comic book tales of Alice...

...with a story featuring a non-Lewis Carroll character!

Writer-artist Dave Berg kept up the surreal storylines in Ziff-Davis' Alice #11 (1951) all the way to the end of the run!

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Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!

Monday Madness ALICE "Alice in Puzzleland"

Before we present the final Alice tale and transition to the  book's "sister" title; Fairy Tales...

...we thought we'd run the never-reprinted one-pagers so common to comics of the era!

Yeah, someone drew the alligator's outline in the comic!

At least they didn't mark up the inside back cover...

Writer-artist Dave Berg did these one-pagers from Ziff-Davis' Alice #11 (1951) as well as the final Alice story that you'll see next Monday!

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Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!

Monday Madness ALICE "StoryTeller: Upside Down Day"

There were other strips besides Alice and Tweedle Twins in Ziff-Davis'Alice...

...including this one which was probably intended as an ongoing backup feature!

Writer-artist Dave Berg apparently offered several strips as backup features for this title as well as its' brother title; Ziff-Davis' Fairy Tales, as you'll see next Monday!

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Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!

Monday Madness ALICE "Super-Dooper Special"

We last saw the Tweedle Twins in their own strip...

...but this time around, they're guest-starring in Alice's feature!

Is Alice imagining she encountered the Tweedle Twins in this never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Alice #11 (1951)?
Since the duo had their own adventure in the previous issue without her (as shown HERE), I'd say that theory is blown away!
It's more likely she has an innate ability to travel to the parallel dimension where they, and slightly-wonky versions of other imaginary characters, including (but not limited to) Lewis Carroll's Wonderland characters, exist!

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Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!

Monday Madness ALICE "Flying Saucers"

I always wondered what happens when someone takes the concept of "flying saucers" literally...

...as the amazing Dave Berg did in this cover-featured tale from Ziff-Davis' Alice #11 (1953)!

Not quite the sort of "flying saucers" we usually present, eh?

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Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!

Monday Madness ALICE "...in Bugville"

We end our re-presentation Ziff-Davis' Alice #10 (1951) with another non-Carroll tale...

...this time involving loveable vermin!
Yeah, you read that correctly...

Dave Berg demonstrates the wonderfully-weird imagination he would so delightfully plumb as one of MAD Magazine's premiere creators for decades!

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Alice in ComicLand

Featuring various comics incarnations of the Lewis Carroll character!