Group of 10 original hand-inked panels for the MAD magazine comic strip “The Mad Orthodontia Primer,” with panels ranging in size from 7.5 x 9 to 15.5 x 11, accomplished in pencil and ink by acclaimed cartoonist Paul Coker, Jr. The comic includes the opening artwork of a dentist sitting on his anguished patient during some heavy drill treatment, in addition to each of the comic strip’s nine chapters, which show the following: a dentist beckoning you into his equipment-strewn office, with a money-stuffed safe to lower right; a dentist with dollar sign eyeglasses as he stares greedily at a young boy; a dentist framing the future Neanderthal plight of a child without dental care; a young boy with braces eating a very messy peanut butter sandwich; a young boy with headgear communicating with his parents through pencil and paper; a young girl crying and surrounded by brace-faced floating heads; a boy with braces walking happily between his parents; a dentist throwing away the boy’s braces, much to the delight of the boy and his parents; and the same dentist explaining the benefits of a teeth retainer, much to the chagrin of the boy and his parents. The lower border of each is marked with appropriate chapters and Mad issue number “145.” Reverse of each sheet bears an E. C. Publications copyright stamp. The comic strip includes its original mechanical layout from the “Chewing Gum Dept.,” which shows a final version of the opening artwork with captions and first two chapters affixed to a 22.5 x 14.25 MAD editorial sheet numbered “145, Pg. 21.” In very good to fine condition, with some light toning. This wonderful Don Martin comic was first published in September 1971 as part of the 'Special Inflation Issue,' No. 145 of MAD magazine.
