Dave Berg before Mad

Though Dave Berg's "Lighter Side" was the most aggressively mundane feature to appear in Mad, focusing on ordinary people facing everyday urban and suburban life, his earlier work often featured surreal images and fantastic settings. These tales were also marked by beautiful artwork that often reflected the influence of his boss at the time, Will Eisner.

From 1942, here are the adventures of Sir Butch.







From Ibis #1

For Dave Berg fans -- Alice in Bugville

Dave Berg's The Lighter Side ran for over forty years, but Berg was already a comics veteran who had been working in the industry for over two decades when the feature started.

One of Berg's more prominent features was a series loosely based on Alice in Wonderland in the early Fifties. (It may just be a coincidence, but Berg started out at Eisner's studio and, judging from the title page, it seems to have left a mark on him.)

Check it out.