Will Elder Weekends: Restaurant!

The first Will Elder stories I remember seeing in Mad reprints during my misspent youth were "Starchie!" and "Mole!," but the first Will Elder story -- make that panel -- that I remember being impressed -- make that astounded -- by for the sheer technique on display was this one, the opening splash from "Restaurant!" from Mad #16, Oct. 1954...

Go ahead, click on it -- because, believe me, you aren't going to get the full impact at that small size. Elder packs what I count to be almost 100 figures into that single panel, and what's more, he makes every single one of them different, clearly defined and, most importantly, funny. And that's not even counting the myriad jokes packed into the panel, from RCA Victor dog peering into the guy's mouth to the gastronintestinal mural on the wall to the surprisingly grim fortune held up by the cutout figure near the door.

In other words, this panel packs more into a single image than most comic books -- heck, most entire runs of comic books -- pack into hundreds of pages -- and it's not the only panel in the story. In fact, it's not even the only panel on the page. How Elder's arm didn't just fall off one day I'll never know.