Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site - What's Your Favorite Mad Magazine Cover?

My favorite is #406 (June 2001). Not only are Eminem and MAD Magazine two of my favorite things, but the look on Em's face as he is surrounded by millions of Alfred clones (replicating his "Real Slim Shady" music video) is priceless! Not only that, but the parody lyrics to "The Real Slim Shady" are laugh-out-loud hilarious, and were probably exactly what most parents at the time (and now) thought of Eminem. James Bennett's art style is also great, and it's a shame MAD didn't hire him to do more covers than he did.
Yoni

My favorite was when MAD put some Oscar-winning actors on the cover for #231, along with Alfred as the Oscar itself. The cover art by Harry North was great. (It was his only cover for MAD, unfortunately.)
Brian

Doug hi!
My favorite cover is from issue #154. The one with the corn.
Why?
It's the corn issue!
I have, like, three different things with that cover on it in my room.
Thanks for stopping by!
Noah

Tie--
Alfred E. Neuman painting the white line in the road by painting the road black (#96) & Alfred E. Neuman the parachutist--pulling the ripcord & opening his knapsack instead of the parachute (#106).
Robert

Great site! I have to say one of my favorite Mad covers, for nostalgia purposes if anything, is the "Time Magazine Man of the Year" parody from Mad #233.

I was 11 when my parents got me this one. In fact, here's a picture of me reading that very issue shortly after its publication....
I also love all the sight gag covers ...Jack Davis' high-wire cover from Mad #246 exemplifies the best of them.

I've read/purchased MAD off and on since the late 1970s. I love the issues from the 70s and 80s most.
I found your fantastic site after I loaded up my Absolutely Mad DVD-Rom, which I just purchased. Your site proves to be a terrific companion to the DVD.
Stephen

Hello Doug,
I've always found it hard to choose a favourite. All of the covers have a special place in my heart. I've been collecting MAD for the past couple of years and I've been gradually getting into them. I really love Norman Mingo's MAD Covers from Issue #30-#37, and my eyes widen up when I see Kelly Freas' art. Like I said it's really, really hard to choose but I'd have to say that the artists whose work I look at the most is Jack Rickard. I like how his art is kind of a combination of Norman Mingo and Richard Williams. Some examples of his best work are: #127 #186 #187 #188 #193 #196 #200 #203 #208 #220 and #226.
Declan

Hello Doug,
I'm Miguel from Argentina. For your collection I'm sending to you 2 covers magazines. MAD Argentina I bought that in 1980, I was 12 years old. In Argentina was publicated only between 1977 to 1983. When I was 9 years old in 1977 and I saw the number 2 here (cover #104 in US) Mad 104

I was impressed with the picture! The groom! This is my favorite cover.
Best regards,
Miguel
Mar del Plata, Argentina

Hi Doug,
As an Englishman I was an avid reader of Mad from age ten, so the discovery of your truly incredible site stunned me to eye-popping amazement. Aaahh the waves of nostalgia nearly drowned me! My favourite cover is the one that parodied the movie JAWS mainly because at that time I stated thinking films were quite interesting and I loved drawing so the artwork of MAD was an inspiration to draw storyboards for dozens of imaginary movies. Well it all paid off because now I am a film director and producer so THANKS MAD MAG. You guys are real heros!
Gary

Hi!
My #1, hands-down favorite MAD MAGAZINE cover is #438 with Michael Jackson standing next to Alfred E. with his arm around him and a very disturbing smile on his face, while Alfred E. looks extremely scared!
Jonathan

I have two favorite MAD covers:
The first is #260, from January 1986. Like many others who have submitted their favorite covers, this was the very first issue I ever received. I was in third grade and had to stay home sick from school one day, and being the nerd that I was at that age, this upset me very much. My mom stepped out for a little bit to do some grocery shopping, and when she came home she had a surprise for me--MAD #260. I'd been begging for a copy of MAD for probably a year prior to that, and she finally listened to me!

The second cover is #67, from December 1961. About a year or so getting my first MAD, my mom told me that my dad had read it when he was younger, and he may have some old copies in with some of his things. We opened up a trunk, pulled out his old high school yearbooks, and there was Alfred, smiling at me with the MAD logo on top of him (this was, of course, the "Fall Issue!").
Great site! Really brings back old memories for me!
Gus

Thanks for sharing all of your covers. There are many earlier covers I like better, but I can only have that perspective from viewing your website. My true favorites are the first ones I remember as a child. I was ten years old, my parents took me to see both the Towering Inferno and Jaws. I begged my parents to let me get the respective Mad Magazines (#177, 180) when I saw the covers in the local Read's drug store. I'm not sure they really knew what kind of magazine Mad was. I was hooked from that point forward and bought most issues for the next ten years or so. I'll still pick one up once in a while if the mood strikes me.
Great website! Take Care,
Dwayne

I'm not sure if I can name a single favorite cover, but 2 Kelly Freas classics that I haven't seen mentioned yet on this page are among mine:
Mad #50

Number 50 from October '59 has always conveyed that "classic" MAD look of a bygone era to me - a look that usually includes a large image of Alfred doing something goofy or idiotic. Freas got it perfect in this one, and the sight gag of Alfred scaring the poor painter off of his swinging seat causing him to leave a long streak of red paint on the building is hilarious. Also what makes this cover classic is the use of the old masthead (at least up until the point where the painter falls), with the little characters doing crazy things inside of the MAD letters. MAD began using this style only sporadically in the 1960's and quit using it entirely by 1967. (I'm even less of a fan of the new italicized logo they use now…) All together this cover is a keeper that is quite different from anything you will see today. By the mid-1970's, most MAD covers usually featured Alfred in the role of spoofing some movie or TV star, and the ideas for what were in my opinion some of the best covers ever - ones that featured Alfred in odd situations or just doing something daring, deceiving, or stupid - seemed to more or less cease.
Mad #66

Another cover that I think is great is number 66 from October '61. This is another Kelly Freas classic that puts Alfred in the role of a White House reporter who is giving President Kennedy a fit at one of his press conferences. This is a special cover for several reasons - first of all, it reflects MAD's quick grasp on the current situation. Kennedy was the first modern president to regularly use press conferences as a communication tool, and he actually held them far more frequently (about 70 in less than 3 years) than today's presidents do. Freas' idea to use Alfred to spoof this new medium in presidential communication was quite fresh indeed. Secondly, this issue is special in regard to its portrayal of J.F.K. This is one of only three regular issue covers that he ever appeared on, and MAD has gone out of it's way in the last 40+ years after the assassination not to poke fun at the 35th president - even going so far as to not reprint spoofs of him from the early 1960's and to change the cover art on a paperback ("The MAD Frontier") so as to shift the focus from Kennedy to the wild west. Finally, the header above the masthead (This issue will make J.F.K….MAD) is also a great addition, and something that MAD sadly doesn't bother to do anymore. Back in the 50's and 60's, nearly every issue was prefaced like this to be a "Special" issue of some type or another - usually related to the joke in the art that was conveyed below.
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Mad #77

Another one of my favorite covers is Norman Mingo's #77 from March of 1963. I have never seen it officially described this way, but the best way to refer to it is probably the "William Tell" cover. The Swiss legend from the 14th century says that a marksman named William Tell was made to split an apple with a bolt from a crossbow while the apple was balanced on his son's head in order to win his freedom. He supposedly did this, and somehow the events after that led to Switzerland's independence…or…something like that. In the classic "misrepresentation of history" that Alfred always seemed to get into in the days of the classic MAD covers (think - Mt. Rushmore, the Egyptian Tomb, Whistler's Mother….) Mingo has the situation reversed by having Alfred posing, presumably as Tell's son, but instead of having the apple on his head, Alfred has the arrow on it instead like a moron and the apple comes into view in the right side of the artwork as if someone has flung it directly at the arrow. A perfect backwards interpretation of history, and of course Mingo has Alfred dressed up in a ridiculous Swiss getup complete with overalls and knee socks that are cut off right at the ankle. I can imagine kids of the 60's looking at this cover when it first came out and either appreciating the satiric reference to history, or failing that, if they didn't get it, simply appreciating another image of Alfred as grand idiot in an odd situation. This cover was also re-used at least once to my knowledge for a MAD paperback ("The Aimless MAD"). Also another "cover variation" at least on my copy of #77 is the notation of the Canadian price (30 cents) in smaller type below the "CHEAP" line on the normal price. I believe however, that there may be versions of this issue both with and without the Canadian price. Feel free to correct me on that if I'm wrong.
John C.

My favorite cover would have to be "The Sting" cover with Nixon and Agnew (#171). This cover epitomized everything that MAD stood for and which, unfortunately, today has lost. I still love the magazine, but its nowhere near the satirical greatness that it reached in the 70's. In this cover, Mad managed to combine its political edge with a popular movie and this combined with the incredible artwork by Norman Mingo, made for a very memorable cover. I loved the political humor and i loved the great movie satires. Both of these items were the reason for my continued interest in Mad. #2 favorite cover would have to be the finger. That cover says it all!
David

Comic Book Issue #6
August/September 1953

My favorite cover has to be #6. You won't believe this and I have to cry a little when I think about it but...
When I was young (I am currently 40) my brother had a paper grocery bag of old comic books and Mad magazines that he had gotten from somewhere that I don't recall. They were in fantastic shape as I recall. I actually thought they were new! Many of the issues of Mad in this bag were the early comic book issues! They were my first exposure to Mad magazine. Issue #6 had a spoof of King Kong called Ping-Pong. When I recently purchased the book of Mad covers and saw this issue and recognized it immediately I couldn't believe it! I am convinced that bag contained issues 1-10 at least. I remember them vividly and recognized them when I first looked through the book. Also I have a clear memory of a bizarre Batman and Robin spoof (Batman was very short) that ended with either Batman or Robin using a hole punch and straws to drink blood from a victims big toe, apparently he was a vampire. I just did a search and it has to be "Bat Boy and Rubin!" in issue #8! Sadly that bag is gone and the treasures it contained lost forever. I only realize now how much of an influence those old Mads had on me over the years. The covers themselves are some of the most vivid memories of my childhood. If only I knew then...
Vernon

I'm pleased to see that, halfway down your 'My Favourite Covers' page, someone has picked the Freas Grand Canyon cover. I'm gratified, because I was beginning to think that I was the only one who liked this one. It seems to have been underrated, and doesn't appear in any of the "decade" books. Because this and the Freas Scarecrow cover have been picked, rather than covering (hah!) my favourite covers, may I pick out some notable ones:
- I always thought the Mingo 'Clockwork Orange' cover was a very professional job.
- The Warhola Crocodile Dundee/Alfred/Rambo knife-fork-knife cover has been underrated because, for some reason, it sold badly. I believe that, as a result, Warhola has been used too infrequently in colour, and James is more often confined to black and white interior features, where he's less suited.
Melvin

My favorite cover has to be the Dec. '72 Godfather cover. It was mine and my Mom's favorite movie, and being such a Mad nut, it always brings back fond memories of my Mom and my childhood (the artwork is just wonderful too).
Carl

I'm divided on which cover is my favorite. I especially like #434, mainly because it's such a dynamic cover; it almost seems like Alfred's deck of cards is flying right at you, and it really is a great example of the kind of work Mark Fredrickson does. My other favorite would have to be a classic cover: #57. It's not really all that special, but as I frequently use magazines to swat flies, this one has a special charm for me.
Bryce P.

Like many early Mad readers I remember my first Mad magazine and the event around it's purchase. Mad was taboo until a trip to Toronto and my mother capitulated to the undying pressure. It was my thirteenth birthday and I was much older and wiser now and able to handle reading Mad. At a news stand on Younge Street I purchased #63 (the classic paradox of life for Alfred) Now you would think after all this I would have protected that magazine with my life..........not!!! Several hours later I realized I had lost it. I had lost it!!! Do you believe it? What's with that? My mother was over the moon but gave in and back tracked with me until we found it in a salespersons desk in the menswear department of Eaton's. The disappointed salesperson coughed it up most likely based on the look on my face. It was apparent that he thought had been his lucky day. That was the only Mad mag I was ever allowed to buy and it has been lost now for good over time. Hence the visit to your site looking to find a place to purchase #63 again. My mom says it's ok now.
David

First...#59 Dec 1960 I was 10 yrs old and this was the first Mad I had ever seen. Just loved the cover. Second is #61 from March 1961. Very clever cover and at age 52 I still remember the day and location I bought the magazine. I still have both mags in plastic and in safe keeping.
Justl

Hey, great (ech!) site!
My favorite cover adorns my favorite ISSUE, of course, No. 139. But why this issue, you might ask? Well don't! The reason is that its feature, "A MAD Peek Behind The Scenes at an AD Agency," begins with a spoof of a commercial my very own family did for Grape-Nuts back in '68. It took MAD a full two years to getting around to it, but that's okay. The commercial ran for two years on the tube, anyway.
That comic depicts the Benton & Bowles producer, Paul, and the director, Phil, along with very heavy-set versions of my mom and sister. Leave it to MAD to ruin a great commercial AND make fun of my mother and sister, all at once! But we're glad they did, because now we can say we were spoofed in MAD (ech!)
View the Burke Family Grape-Nuts Archives:
burkesgrapenuts.com
Adam Burke

MAD #11 is my favourite cover. It is a great example of Wolverton art work. Also #28 'The Spring Issue' coz it's a great gag.
Penelope

A very hard question to answer. First I love both Mingo's FIRST set of covers and Freas's covers equally. When Mingo resumed cover art with issue 75, something happened to the richness of the cover art. Virtually all of Mingo's covers from #76 on had white backgrounds and the art itself on these covers lacked--to me, anyway--the richness and color of his first set of covers (#30-37) and of Freas's covers. Freas is a genius. My favorite MAD cover?? This is so difficult! It would be a TIE between Mingo's #30 and Freas's #53 (Grand Canyon cover). The Mingo AEN portrait for #30's cover is enhanced by that neat, '50s-looking red border. And I love the cover of Freas's AEN flying over the Grand Canyon for issue # 53. But Again I love all the covers to Mad from #27 through #72. Each was a work of fine art. I also love Freas's many great backcover paintings on issues #40-#72.
Mike

My favorite cover is Mad #198. I don't know what it is about this cover it just looks cool. Also it is the very first Mad to feature the UPC code. I like it so much I bought it from some stranger.
Eric

MAD #46 has always been a favorite. It was the April Fool's 1959 issue. I was just shy of 10 years old, in a Woolworth's in Fitchburg, Massachusetts with my Mother, and I picked it up.
It showed Alfie hanging over a fence crying, and the words: "This Is the End of MAD" on the cover. I opened it up and realized that the cover had been purposely put on backwards, so I was indeed looking at the end (last page) of that issue.
Understanding the joke made me feel quite proud, and it gave me an angle. I showed it to my Mom, and said "Mom, can I please buy this? After all, it's the last issue!!" The ruse worked. I proudly brought my first issue of MAD home with me.
B.Nelson

I will also say #46 is my all-time favorite cover. I was ten years old in 1959, and back in the late 1950s, MAD was considered utterly cool by kids, and utter trash by parents. I had a foot high stack of them, bought for 25 cents (Cheap!..).. at local stores, and a subscription for a while. Two bucks a year for nine issues or something like that.. It was one of the few things I got in the mail, so it was special. I had to hide them under my bed to keep Mom from throwing them out, and to keep my younger brother from destroying them.
Alas, that old stack was eventually tossed, and into High School I lost interest in MAD, but with age comes a fondness for pleasant childhood memories, so a couple years ago with the advent of eBay, I started to buy back bits and pieces of my childhood.. various toys, books, magazines, and such, and got re-hooked on MAD. Just looking at their covers at antique and comic shops who have them, and on eBay, I would say to myself "I had that one!" So those are the ones I bought, and #46 hit me like no other one when I saw it again for the first time in decades. It's an all-time classic cover, stapled to the issue upside-down. I even printed it out from "Totally MAD" and had it foam-core mounted so I could hang it on a wall. It takes me back to when I was ten, life was simple, and MAD made fun of the "grown up" world like nothing else did.
Harv

When I was six years old and living in Memphis I saw a sacker at the local grocery store pick a Mad magazine off the rack and flip through it. Being a little kid and thinking that everything a teenager does is cool, I checked it out. And after (over) 21 years I still remember that it had Alfred inside the shark's mouth from JAWS. I don't know why I remembered it all these years... maybe it scared me...
Rob

I have 2 faves even though the question specifically asked for "a cover". The first non-AEN cover would be MAD #19. With all the jokes and gags crammed into that cover, it's like having an extra issue to read. And check out the copyright info and warning underneath the title. The fave cover with AEN on it is #90. It appeals on so many levels: the sight gag, the excellent art by Mingo and the word "fink" is just plain funny.
Steve

Choosing a favourite cover isn't easy, but i would say that #31 Feb '57 would be my favourite. I have always liked Norman Mingo covers the best (Kelly Freas would be second). This is ironically one of the only issues from this period that i DON'T have. I think the colours work well and i enjoy reading about U.S presidential history so the Mt Rushmore cover is a good one.
Ian

Around 2 years ago i listed my favourite cover as #31, February 1957. (i think it still is my favourite). I want to add to my explanation on the site: In my rant i said that it was ironically one issue from the period that i didn't have - well i've had it for a year and a half now. I also like the Mount Rushmore cover because North By Northwest is one of my favorite movies.
Ian

My favourite mad cover is #399 with Alfred Wolverine! It is pretty funny, I don't know why, when ever I look at that cover on Mad #399 I can't stop laughing! I also like the way they made his claws ripping through the MAD title.
rd

My favorite MAD cover has got to be #325 in Feb. 1994. I am 12 years old and get the idea of the cover (I get them all). Also, I am a fan of Beavis and Butthead and love any jokes like that. I recently started collecting and I saw that cover on Ebay and cracked up laughing. I immediately bid on it and won the auction. That's why #325 is my all time favorite cover.
Frankie

I have to say my favorite cover of MAD magazines is #292 Jan. 1990. I am 13 years old and I am a fan of MAD Magazine. I got my first issue when I was 8 years old in 1996. This is my favorite cover of Mad Magazine because I really like video games and it is funny when two Mario's have hammers and are hitting a T.V. screen with Alfred E. Newman's face on the T.V. and the Nintendo System is on top of the T.V. I liked Mario for a long time and it is funny to see him on a MAD Magazine, one of the greatest magazines ever. I like a whole bunch of other MAD covers but out of all of them that is my favorite and it made me laugh all day long!!!!!!!
Jason

I would have to choose issue #56 as my 1st favorite. Kelly Freas was a genius amongst the "usual gang of idiots".This cover illustrated how he could accurately depict a multitude of people. the colors were vibrant and my copy of this issue is so "mint",some of the pages are still white! My second favorite would have to be #93 as March '65 was my birthdate! Norman Mingo's depiction of AEN is still the BEST!
Frank G.

My favorite MAD cover would have to be #379 with Alfred E. Neuman tangeled in yo-yo string, holding the "Yo-Yo's for Dummies" book. I think it's awesome how they made his sweater on that cover. It looked like actual sweater material cut out and scanned onto the paper.
RJD

My favorite cover is from issue #166--the middle finger. I don't know why; maybe it's because I had that attitude during my teen years when I read the mag.
:D

My Favorite Mad cover is the infamous middle finger one (#166)! this is my favorite because one time i was in an antique store and i found this issue and i was so happy! so i just bought it! its really funny too. also my other favorite one is #272 (the Alf one) because i also found this one in the same antique store and i was also excited to get it so i bought it too! plus Alf was one of my dads favorite shows too!
Michael

I have to say my favorite cover is #111, the special racial issue. Seeing Alfred as a Chinaman, Indian, Hindu, and African amuses me to no end.
Nat

I would have to say that my favorite MAD cover of all time would have to be #171. I am only 20 but I have some knowledge of the whole Nixon scandal. It perfectly captured the entire feel of that whole scandal in one brilliantly done spoof by the genious Norman Mingo. Every time I look at it it just makes me smile. Also #266 holds a special place in my memory, it's the first one I ever read, actually I just looked at the pictures, I was four.
Adam

It was a pretty bad choice, but I have to choose issue number 386. I like it because I have always hated Pokemon. I would love to see nothing more then Pikachu dead! That's why I like this cover. It has "How do we kill this Pokemon?" on the front. It also has Pikachu in all of these dead positions.
Justin

Mine has to be #33, not because it is anything special, but because the mag had the first installment of Ernie Kovacs' "Strangely Believe It" articles, which were among my favorites in the late fifties.
B. Stewart

I would like to say to you that my favorite Mad cover is from issue #409. I love watching the Weakest Link (although we have a different host in the Philippines), and I especially love the insults the host gives to every contestant who screws up in the game (which became more annoying in that particular issue). I also like the covers of issue #395 (although I own only the 1st cover, with Gore in it). Alfred really showed there that both Gore and Bush are equal to idiocy.
JM

Really enjoy your site. I have a couple of old milk crates with my old issues of MAD, going back to 1957 -- ended sometime in the 70s. My daughter picked up the habit for a while and I had a couple of memorable rainy sunday afternoons turning her loose with my old stash. Unfortunately, my older ones are virutally worthless because when I was 14 years old, I was so taken with the covers that I took them all OFF and plastered them on my WALL. Geez. I still have fun looking at them from time to time. My favorite cover? Quite a few come to mind, but I think the one I like the best was Alfred staring in the window at his girlfriend in Christmas issue #44, January 1959. Along with the back cover with Alfred's girlfriend staring back at him, the two together are priceless.
Bob

I've been a MAD fan ever since my father gave me some of his old ones when I was 8 years old. One of the mags that he gave me was issue #134, with the a Norman Mingo cover. It is, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful cover ever done for MAD. I love the simple white background, the green MAD banner, and the hilarious image of Alfred E. Neuman swinging on a tire AND holding himself up with a branch! Creative, absurd.
Bill

Kelly Freas scarecrow cover for issue #43 is a classic. It appears that Freas tried to include as many known animals species dating back to prehistoric times. Especially funny is the penguin with the Zippo lighter.
James

Hey, cool site! its so (blecch!)amazing, okay let's get to the point! My favorite Mad magazine covers are issues #412 and #424 as you know they're both spoofing (nice word!) Harry Potter, hence to say that I'm a Harry Potter fan. If it wasn't for issue #412, I wouldn't have started reading and collecting Mad. Ever since I bought it I was totally hooked buying the recent and the past issues(in auctions of course). Thanks and may you have a dog stuck in your drain pipe!
b_fig

Your web page is one of the best I've seen in a bigalaloogigisation million years! Can I use any satiric way to describe it? I have accessed many old covers from the mag. Ok, being twelve years old and not having any extremely old issues is crap! I collect the Australian Mad but I must agree that the American Mad is much more superior. One of the issues I have (based on American articles from old issues), the Australian Super Special #105 contains some very practical articles, like the Garbage Explosion. I would really love to buy some old American issues if I could, but my parents don't like buying items off the internet (or subscribing to MAD!). I have a question, can I be one of the Usual Idiots at Mad when I'm older? Question some mad contributers about this and I'll get back to you.
By the way, one of my fave covers is American #88, the one of Alfred fireworks!
Cheers
Spazz

Hi Doug....I am slimply a bug about Mad and The Headless Horseman.Combining the two without question makes # 59 my favorite cover.
P.S Do you know where the original art for this cover is located?
Bosco