when kurtzman created "mad" in 1952, elder's wacky panels, filled with background gags, immediately attracted attention, first with "ganefs!" in "mad" 's debut issue but especially in the second issue with "mole!", satirizing the popular mid-1940s "dick tracy" villain named mole. the "mad" lampoon depicted the successive efforts of prisoner melvin mole to tunnel away from the prison, first with a spoon, then with a toothpick and finally with a nostril hair.