LORD OF THE THINGS

LORD OF THE RINGS (1978)
dir: Ralph Bakshi


Parodies of the earlier animated film, not the later Peter Jackson-directed series from the 2000s. It only adapted the first two books of the trilogy, a TV movie was made of the third.

THE RING AND I: THE MAD “LORD OF THE RINGS” MUSICAL
MAD #210, October 1979
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Mort Drucker

A lot of people told me they never read the song parodies as a kid in MAD because they were always parodying songs that were at least twenty years old from musicals they never saw. MAD must have gotten the memo at this time because the songs were slightly newer, but not quite. The songs used in this may have been more contemporary, but they seem to be songs that the middle-age staff were able to tolerate. No rock 'n' roll here. Some of the songs have video links below for people who still won't read song parodies on account of not knowing them. The rest are assumed to be common knowledge.

One of the only pieces by Mort Drucker that didn't have a single likeness. While not everything he did for them was a movie or TV parody, there always was a caricature, so it's weird to see something by him without one. Usually when they did something animated or a fantasy, they'd have Don Martin do it. The story of the books, and the movie, was that on Middle Earth, there were rings forged that give magical powers, The main one was used by Sauron centuries earlier who was defeated by Orcs, and the ring remained at the bottom of the river in all that time. It has been found by a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, and years later the wizard Gandalf has told Bilbo the ring makes one evil eventually, and must be given to his cousin Frodo to be disposed of. The story is about their adventures in travelling with fellow Hobbits Merry, Pippin and Sam while getting rid of the ring.

The Black Riders are a group of people trying to get the ring. Aragorn is an elf that has been sent to protect them on their way to Ravenswell, one foot of their journey.

Legolas is another warrior elf.

Orcs are another tribe fighting for the ring. Ents are walking trees that rescue them.

Gollum had been Smeegle, who possessed the ring once and it made him corrupt and ugly. They need his help for their route despite his duplicity and acting nice solely to get the ring back from them.

They compare this to Star Wars, something Joseph Campbell has also written about.

LORD OF THE THINGS
Sick #127, June 1979
w & a: Dave Manak

The movie begins with the origin of the ring.

THE KING OF THE RING
Plop! #23, September-October 1976
w & a: Wally Wood

This was before the movie came out, based on the books. Plop! was a humor anthology from DC Comics, which was owned by Warner Communications like MAD was. Because of this, William Gaines was an unofficial consultant for DC and shared artists occasionally. Wood was a frequent contributor. There were no visuals in the Tolkein books, so the portrayal of the characters is eerily similar.