Where are the Mad Magazine collectors? 10 10

[Doohickamabob]

This may well be the Mad cover with the least amount of effort put into it. Were they in a rush to get the printer that month?

I think I read in one of my behind-the-scenes Mad books (probably "Mad Cover to Cover" by Frank Jacobs) that William Gaines and Al Feldstein always allowed for one "easy" cover per year. I think it gave them a month off from deadline worries and such -- probably the month before or after they went on their yearly trip (Gaines treated the core staff to an all-expenses-paid international vacation each year).

 

Among the "easiest" Mad covers is also the "Mad Lowers Its Price!" cover which shows the same price but at the bottom of the page. And then there's the big "SEX" cover which is bright pink on a black background. That's a favorite. Another good one is the variant cover that supposedly says the actual numerical number of each issue printed (though there are only 4 different numbers, but you'd have to flip back through the newsstand a bit to figure that out).

 

The whole trend was obviously started by Harvey Kurtzman with his conceptual covers during the comic-book phase. Scrolling down it looks like somebody else has posted a few.

[Doohickamabob]

Found these in a collection I purchased a few years ago.

Nice! Note the first-ever appearance of Alfred E. Neuman's face on a Mad cover. (Though he didn't have a name yet.)

[frozentundraguy]

This may well be the Mad cover with the least amount of effort put into it. Were they in a rush to get the printer that month?

I think I read in one of my behind-the-scenes Mad books (probably "Mad Cover to Cover" by Frank Jacobs) that William Gaines and Al Feldstein always allowed for one "easy" cover per year. I think it gave them a month off from deadline worries and such -- probably the month before or after they went on their yearly trip (Gaines treated the core staff to an all-expenses-paid international vacation each year).

 

Among the "easiest" Mad covers is also the "Mad Lowers Its Price!" cover which shows the same price but at the bottom of the page. And then there's the big "SEX" cover which is bright pink on a black background. That's a favorite. Another good one is the variant cover that supposedly says the actual numerical number of each issue printed (though there are only 4 different numbers, but you'd have to flip back through the newsstand a bit to figure that out).

 

The whole trend was obviously started by Harvey Kurtzman with his conceptual covers during the comic-book phase. Scrolling down it looks like somebody else has posted a few.

 

Interesting. That really makes sense from a publishing point of view. Mad still get a gag cover, but with minimal artistic effort and time involved.

[frozentundraguy]

This book is past my normal collecting range, but has a cool back cover.

 

# 253 March 1985

 

[Big Daddy Kel]

Does anyone here own any Mad signature series CGC books? If so, I would love to see them.

 

If anyone has them, I'mlooking for issue 105 and 110 in high grades.

[frozentundraguy]

1974, still ony 50 cents. It certainly sounds like a bargain now.

 

 

 

Back cover of #171

 

[SilverRich]

This may well be the Mad cover with the least amount of effort put into it. Were they in a rush to get the printer that month?

I think I read in one of my behind-the-scenes Mad books (probably "Mad Cover to Cover" by Frank Jacobs) that William Gaines and Al Feldstein always allowed for one "easy" cover per year. I think it gave them a month off from deadline worries and such -- probably the month before or after they went on their yearly trip (Gaines treated the core staff to an all-expenses-paid international vacation each year).

 

Among the "easiest" Mad covers is also the "Mad Lowers Its Price!" cover which shows the same price but at the bottom of the page. And then there's the big "SEX" cover which is bright pink on a black background. That's a favorite. Another good one is the variant cover that supposedly says the actual numerical number of each issue printed (though there are only 4 different numbers, but you'd have to flip back through the newsstand a bit to figure that out).

 

The whole trend was obviously started by Harvey Kurtzman with his conceptual covers during the comic-book phase. Scrolling down it looks like somebody else has posted a few.

 

Interesting. That really makes sense from a publishing point of view. Mad still get a gag cover, but with minimal artistic effort and time involved.

 

 

For some reason I'm thinking that in the past they used to skip a month each year (February or November, I believe). I would have to check when I get back around to them to be sure. But I'm pretty sure they combined two months in one issue for a while. This could've been when they took the vacation.

 

The mag definitely formed my outlook on life and sarcastic nature. Born in '56, I read them from about age 6-7 until I discovered that females were more fun in 1968 or '69 (same with comic book reading). Later in life, I hated learning that they had to start accepting advertisements, which ended their unique credo of everything and anyone being fair game for their talons.

 

I started collecting Mad in the mid-90's after an impulse buy on a stack of issues, completed a full run by 2004 and then subscribed to keep the run going. Funny thing is, I didn't renew my subscription last year because I figured that 1-500 was enough, but they keep sending issues each month. Guess they figure I'll come back and the freebies are worth sending.

 

Either I'm getting too old for todays brand of humor, or it's just simply bad material, but I haven't found much even remotely humorous in Mad since maybe the 1980's.

[Whizzer]

I discovered MAD in the 80's when I found some of the old paperbacks in a second hand bookshop. I've often thought about collecting the mags, but haven't gotten round to it yet.

 

Harley Yee had a copy of #24 at the London Con for £60 which I thought hard about buying, but I'd already spent way over my budget. regret not buying it now though.

 

I have added to the paperbacks, and have about 20 in lower grades.

[Doohickamabob]

For some reason I'm thinking that in the past they used to skip a month each year (February or November, I believe). I would have to check when I get back around to them to be sure. But I'm pretty sure they combined two months in one issue for a while. This could've been when they took the vacation.

 

For most of Mad's history, it was published 8 months per year. I believe they regularly skipped February, May, August, and November. I think things started getting changed around in the '90s (maybe it became 12 times a year), and I think now they might be only publishing 6 times per year (I'm not keeping up).

 

The mag definitely formed my outlook on life and sarcastic nature. Born in '56, I read them from about age 6-7 until I discovered that females were more fun in 1968 or '69 (same with comic book reading). Later in life, I hated learning that they had to start accepting advertisements, which ended their unique credo of everything and anyone being fair game for their talons.

 

That's the same basic arc for my Mad reading. I guess it must have been for a lot of kids. My perspective was pretty limited -- I was the only kid I knew who read Mad regularly, so I was under the impression I was unusual. Later on I discovered no, there were hundreds of thousands of kids like me.

 

By the time Mad started taking advertisements, many of the core editors were long gone -- William Gaines had died, and founding members such as Al Feldstein had retired. Mad was owned by Time/Warner and was more of a "brand" than the cultural institution it used to be. I think it was a matter of taking advertisements or going out of business, since market tests showed kids were far less likely to buy black-and-white magazines, and the money from the ads would be used to offset the costs of color printing. I can understand being put off by the change, though.

 

I started collecting Mad in the mid-90's after an impulse buy on a stack of issues, completed a full run by 2004 and then subscribed to keep the run going. Funny thing is, I didn't renew my subscription last year because I figured that 1-500 was enough, but they keep sending issues each month. Guess they figure I'll come back and the freebies are worth sending.

 

You had a full run from the #1 comic on? That is impressive! Did you get all the Specials too? (Including Follies/Trash/Worst with bonuses intact?) That is very challenging indeed -- I still have many gaps to fill.

 

Either I'm getting too old for todays brand of humor, or it's just simply bad material, but I haven't found much even remotely humorous in Mad since maybe the 1980's.

 

You know, as much as Mad has passed its prime, I still occasionally pick up new copies and find myself laughing. I bought a Mad before a long plane flight last year and had to hide my face from laughing so hard at one of the fake advertisements or something. Now, MOST of the mag isn't anything cutting-edge at all, but they seem to sneak in some stealth subversive gems every now and then. I also enjoy seeing Sergio Aragones continuing to contribute, although I hear recently he really hurt his back and has trouble drawing.

[Doohickamabob]

I discovered MAD in the 80's when I found some of the old paperbacks in a second hand bookshop. I've often thought about collecting the mags, but haven't gotten round to it yet.

Collecting Mads is pretty economical compared to comics. New (old) collections of Mads keep surfacing all the time, so they are not difficult to get for low ("cheap") prices if you're in it for the long-term hunt. Plus you get to read them again, and it's a testament to their excellent quality control that much of the stuff holds up really well. The real trick is putting together a run of Mads all in grade.

 

 

[frozentundraguy]

I discovered MAD in the 80's when I found some of the old paperbacks in a second hand bookshop. I've often thought about collecting the mags, but haven't gotten round to it yet.

Collecting Mads is pretty economical compared to comics. New (old) collections of Mads keep surfacing all the time, so they are not difficult to get for low ("cheap") prices if you're in it for the long-term hunt. Plus you get to read them again, and it's a testament to their excellent quality control that much of the stuff holds up really well. The real trick is putting together a run of Mads all in grade.

 

 

My thoughts on Mad are similar. I last purchased a new issue in 2001. It just was not the mag I remembered. My next door neighbor had quite a few Mad's from the late 50's, and he was willing to let me read them. I read all of the Don Martin stories, before going back to read the rest of the magazines. Thanks to that exposure, it wasnt long before I was shelling out my allowance money to buy an occassional issue myself. As finances permitted, I eventually would up buying every issue for a couple of years.

 

I recall looking for some back issues in the early 90's, back in those pre E-bay days. Since supply was "limited", to what each store carried, the prices tended to be high, so I did not pick up very many at that point. Once I had delved into comic book collecting, I took my 25-30 issues in to trade for comic books. It was not without some trepidation, as I knew I would eventually miss them. In retrospect I probably should have kept issues 94 (King Kong cover) and 105 (Batman and Robin cover).

Edited April 9, 2012 by frozentundraguy

[vspawn]

The MAD IPad app is out now. Print subscribers can get the current issues free.

 

The best part of the app is pinching the Al Jaffe "Fold-Ins" at the end of each issue. No more creasing of the back covers on the print issues.

 

[frozentundraguy]

The MAD IPad app is out now. Print subscribers can get the current issues free.

 

The best part of the app is pinching the Al Jaffe "Fold-Ins" at the end of each issue. No more creasing of the back covers on the print issues.

 

 

Great news, I might just have to obtain an IPad one day.

[frozentundraguy]

Welcome back Kotter, er Klodder issue. The satire on Welcome back Kotter refers to Vinnie and the gang as the "sweatslobs". Who knew that Gabe Kaplan would eventually sit in with the Poker After Dark show a few times.

 

[Chipmaker]

I can still remember some of that Kotter parody.

 

Favorite line, and you need to know that the Arnold Horshack character is renamed as "Arnerd Horseshot".

 

Klodder is reading out the sweatslobs' grades on a recent exam to the vice-principal. Horseshot got a -4, and the VP demands to know how he got a negative?

 

"He spelled his name wrong. That's '...s-h-O-t', Horseshot."

 

[Hepcat]

I have added to the paperbacks, and have about 20 in lower grades.

 

The paperbacks intrigue me even more than the magazine. That may of course be because I don't have any of the paperbacks....

 

[Whizzer]

I have added to the paperbacks, and have about 20 in lower grades.

 

The paperbacks intrigue me even more than the magazine. That may of course be because I don't have any of the paperbacks....

 

 

Well, as I say I bought them cheaply from a 2nd hand bookshop. I was probably about 13 and had never heard of Mad mag or the original comic at that time. It was love at first sight and I devoured them. From there I began buying the regular UK version of the mag.

 

My Mad comic no.4 is one of my favorite books and I need to work on a low grade run of the other comic issues.

 

Man, I wish I'd bought that no. 24 from Harley!

[steveinthecity]

I have added to the paperbacks, and have about 20 in lower grades.

 

The paperbacks intrigue me even more than the magazine. That may of course be because I don't have any of the paperbacks....

 

 

Well, as I say I bought them cheaply from a 2nd hand bookshop. I was probably about 13 and had never heard of Mad mag or the original comic at that time. It was love at first sight and I devoured them. From there I began buying the regular UK version of the mag.

 

My Mad comic no.4 is one of my favorite books and I need to work on a low grade run of the other comic issues.

 

Man, I wish I'd bought that no. 24 from Harley!

The paperbacks are a great way to read random stuff(cheaply) from old issues. Another plus for me was being able to get books that featured all Dave Berg strips, or all tv parodies for example.

[Hepcat]

'Get your subscription to Mad. Suitable for framing or wrapping fish.'

 

 

One of my favorite Mad covers, by Kelly Freas with amazing detail:

 

 

Nice! Here are scans of my Halloween cover Mads:

 

 

 

 

 

[Jimmy Linguini]

 

Man, I wish I'd bought that no. 24 from Harley!

 

No one should be mad for not buying something off of Harley.