Today in Comics History, March 26: Happy birthday, Bob Elliott!

Happy 101st birthday today (born in 1923) to one of my favorite comedians, Bob Elliott, one-half of comedy team Bob & Ray! Bob's appeared in countless radio and record comedy sketches, as well as movies and television as diverse as Cold Turkey, Quick Change, Saturday Night Live, Happy Days, Newhart, King of the Hill and more, not to mention roles in Cabin Boy and Get a Life!, which both starred his son, comedian Chris Elliott.

But didja know that Bob (and Ray) were also Comic book creators and characters? Why, yes! The early years of the black-and-white MAD magazine in the 1950s were full of strips written by comics and humorists like Ernie Kovacs, Orson Bean, Danny Kaye, Henry Morgan, and Wally Cox (or their writers), and Bob & Ray were no exception. Beginning in MAD #34, the duo penned and starred in a a series of comics over the next couple of years, drawn by Mort "You Ain't Nobody 'Til You've Been Drawn By" Drucker, one of the greatest artist MAD ever chained to a drawing table! Here, Bob (lighter hair, shorter) plays Mr. Science, and Ray (dark hair, large) plays Jimmy.


from "Mr. Science" in MAD #34 (July 1957), script by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker



Frequently the strips would take the form of one of Bob & Ray's famous "Wally Ballew" interviews, with Ray as his offbeat interview subjects.


from "Baseball Report" in MAD #42 (November 1958), script by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker


from "Electrical Report" in MAD #44 (January 1959), script by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker
Here's one of my favorites, with an absolutely hilarious line by Ray in the lower-toght hand panel:


from "Paul Sturdley's Secret File" in MAD #36 (December 1957), script by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker
Apparently Drucker liked drawing the duo so much that even inserted them into one of his strips not written by Elliott and Goulding!



from "TV Commercials To Match The Show" in MAD #45 (March 1959), script by Frank Jacobs, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker
And who enjoys America's favorite troublemaker*? Bob & Ray enjoy America's favorite troublemaker! (*Not


"The Cookie Jar" from Dennis the Menace (1959 series) #46 (Hallden/Fawcett, October 1960)
I'm so excited about Bob Elliott's birthday that I lit off some fireworks for him! And, uh, Ray too. Oh yeah, Orson Bean is there.


cover of MAD #34 (July 1957), painting by Norman Mingo
Happy birthday, Bob Elliott! Write if you get work!