Mad hits Issue #600, and we go back to the salad days…
Cover by Sergio Aragones
Mad magazine — or MAD Magazine, if you prefer — hits Issue #600 on Wednesday, and despite the publication’s checkered history in recent years, it’s a pretty cool landmark. (See, what DC did is what comics companies do all the time now: They combined the number of issues of the original run with its later run, and voila.)
Like any red-blooded American kid who grew up in a certain era, MAD — long published by the late, lamented EC — wasn’t just a magazine, it was a part of popular culture, and there are certain covers that burned themselves into my consciousness.
So, to celebrate the heyday of the hilarious and influential magazine (first released in July 1952) I’ve selected THE 13 GROOVIEST MAD COVERS OF THE SILVER AND BRONZE AGES. (Yes, I know Mad predates the Silver Age, but work with me here.)
I also want to give a shout-out to two 13th Dimensioneers with whom I’m very proud to work every week:
Cover by Jason Edmiston
One is Bill Morrison, who writes MORRISON MONDAYS and was the executive editor of the refreshed 2018 MAD before it was rather unceremoniously and painfully transformed into a largely reprint mag by DC. Bill is a monstrously, multi-talented illustrator and storyteller, and he and his particular Gang of Idiots deserved better.
The other is the wonderful Kerry Callen, who produces SUNDAY FUNNIES WITH KERRY CALLEN, and was one of those very Idiots. Kerry still contributes to MAD — the publication currently mixes new and vintage material — and has a feature in Issue #600. Click on over here to check out an EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK.
Thanks, fellas! You’re good as mold!
Now, on to THE 13 GROOVIEST MAD COVERS OF THE SILVER AND BRONZE AGES. I’m not ranking them, and I’m not saying they’re the greatest ever. They’re just the ones that resonate the most with me — hence, “grooviest.”
In chronological order:
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1. Mad #1, Harvey Kurtzman. Where it all started.
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2. Mad #23, Kurtzman concept. In a way, Mad’s most subversive cover of them all.
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3. Mad #60, Bob Clarke. The famous flip cover. Kennedy was the one on the “back,” actually.
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4. Mad #105, Norman Mingo. Because of course.
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5. Mad #111, Mingo. I cannot fathom how the hell they got away with this. But that was Mad.
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6. Mad #123, Mingo. There were four versions of this cover, each with a different number “stamped” in the box. This might actually have been the birth of the variant cover, and not 1986’s Man of Steel #1.
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7. Mad #157, Mingo. Skewers all the Apes movies, with the exception of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, which hadn’t come out yet. I read this over and over and over and over.
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8. Mad #165, Don Martin. The cover is fine but the real draw of this ish is that, as with POTA, it lampoons all the James Bond movies to date, through Live and Let Die. Another one I read over and over and over and over.
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9. Mad #166, Mingo. The ballsiest cover ever.
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10. Mad #171, Mingo. Mad’s collective sense of humor was savage, but the sharpest edges were usually sanded off. Here, they bring the shiv.
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11. Mad #186, Jack Rickard. Fascinating. Star Trek had been off network TV for seven years and even the cartoon had ended two years earlier. But its endurance through syndication and a religiously devout following kept it relevant, leading to this surprisingly timely satire.
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12. Mad #196, Rickard. Also one I read over and over and over and over. Absolutely could not get enough Star Wars. I still feel the excitement of seeing this cover.
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13. Mad #208, Rickard. Naturally, I had this.
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MORE
— MAD #600: Dig This EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW of Kerry Callen’s MAD PUZZLE PAGES. Click here.
— 70 Years Ago, MAD Switched From Comic to Magazine — and Comedy Was Never the Same. Click here.
