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In Honor of Mad's 57th Birthday
57 Reasons I Enjoy MAD Enough To Waste Time Collecting It |
| 1 | Dave Berg before The Lighter Side | Planned Obsolescence, Push Carts, Pizza Pie, Modern Furniture, Big Cars |
| 2 | Al Jaffee's Fold-In | |
| 3 | Anti-Smoking articles and ads |  |
| 4 | Basil Wolverton people |   |
| 5 | Consistent increase in value of the 23 comics and many of the early magazines |
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| 6 | Presidential humor |  |
| 7 | Sergio Aragones' marginals and A Mad Look At... |
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| 8 | Weird Words | axolotl, poiuyt, furshlugginer, moxie, ganef, potrzebie, etc. |
| 9 | Don Martin |  |
| 10 | Early guest articles | Sid Caesar, Bob & Ray, Ernie Kovacs,Orson Bean, Jean Shepherd, Henry Morgan, Eddie Lawrence, Tom Lehrer, Wally Cox, Andy Griffith |
| 11 | Antonio Prohias' Spy Vs. Spy |  |
| 12 | Caricatures of famous people by the master - Mort Drucker |
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| 13 | Dumb responses to stupid letters |  |
| 14 | If you're just after regular issues, they don't take up much space (click image). |
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| 15 | What will they do with Alfred next? |  |
| 16 | Songs based on popular tunes |  |
| 17 | That middle-finger cover |  |
| 18 | Lack of Advertising -well, at least before March 2001 |
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| 19 | They look so impressive all bagged and boxed in an orderly fashion (click image). |
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| 20 | You can impress or sicken your friends with your Mad knowledge | |
| 21 | Ad parodies |  |
| 22 | TV and Movie parodies (often better than the real movie) |
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| 23 | Witty Writers | Frank Jacobs, Larry Siegel, Dick Debartolo, some of the new guys |
| 24 | That whole Bill Gaines mystique |  |
| 25 | Mad "Do-It-Yourself" articles | |
| 26 | Bill Elder -wild, madcap humor straight out of a mental institution |
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| 27 | Scary old book stores to rummage through looking for that one last issue to complete the collection. | |
| 28 | Wally Wood |  |
| 29 | Mole |  |
| 30 | Old people remember it. You can share it with your granny. |
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| 31 | Sight gag covers |  |
| 32 | The Neuman smile |  |
| 33 | Creative Photo Editing from Arnoldo Franchioni |
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| 34 | Watching the magazine change over the years. As the times changed, so did Mad. |
content, structure, layout, design |
| 35 | Bizzaro gross humor from Tom Bunk |  |
| 36 | That old, dry-rot smell of your not-so-well-maintained issues adding an air of authenticity to your entire collection. | |
| 37 | J. Fred Muggs |  |
| 38 | The fun they had with Nixon |  |
| 39 | The fun they had with Vietnam |  |
| 40 | Self deprecating humor - they knew they were trash before you did |
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| 41 | Amazing inventions |  |
| 42 | Word play |  |
| 43 | Poetry |  |
| 44 | Harvey Kurtzman comic daze | |
| 45 | Hippies |  |
| 46 | Cultural snapshot - What were we interested in when? |
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| 47 | The Mad Nasty File from the 80's | |
| 48 | Hawks and Doves |  |
| 49 | Norman Mingo and Kelly Freas covers | |
| 50 | Biting social commentary - putting into words what we already know about ourselves |
You Know You're Really... When... |
| 51 | Fake Magazines and Magazine Parodies |  |
| 52 | Scenes We'd Like To See | |
| 53 | Ads for Mad Stuff like straightjackets, cufflinks, Alfred E. Neuman busts, hardcover and paperback books, calendars, watches, T-shirts |
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| 54 | Believe It or Nuts! | |
| 55 | Fake Catalogues |  |
| 56 | Annual 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things | |
| 57 | The Fundalini Pages |
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I have a few reasons to add to your 57 reasons: 1. The wit and wisdom of Alfred E. Neuman. Those little quotes in the table of contents are terrific. 2. Dave Bergs Lighter side. I know you included his pre-Lighter Side work, but I love the lighter side. As a teenager I loved how he drew hot girls, (Hell, I still love how he drew hot girls). 3. Black and White. I have always been a fan of pen and ink art. I am not a big fan of the new format. 4. Dick DeBartolo 5. Frank Jacobs 6. Wally Wood 7. Jack Davis 8. John Caldwell 9. Mad Super Specials. Back when I was a kid they had free junk in the Super Specials, like stamps, bumper stickers and best of all real records. That was cool stuff. 10. I know you counted both of these guys, but the two top reasons I started reading MAD, and continued reading over the years is Don Martin and Sergio Aragones. Just thought I would send a few random thoughts, one MAD fan to the next. Ed A very nice site you have on the net. I read your '57 reasons for collecting Mad magazines.' I would like to add 'Horrifying Clichés' to the list! I'm not really a Mad magazine collector but I do have almost every issue from number 100 up. The prices of anything older than that are surprisingly steep, and out of reach for a normal (!) person. I find the new format somehow lifeless; the old one was better. Anyway, thanks for your site; keep up the good work! Yours sincerely, Markku Tampere, Finland |