Dropping 2/19: MAD #12!

Arriving in subscribers mailboxes already, and in comic book shops everywhere Wednesday- MAD #12… The “TV” issue!

• Cover (Mark Fredrickson)
• A MAD Look at a TV Commercial* (Al Jaffee)
• That’s Advertainment! (Sheryl Zohn, Johnny Sampson)
• VH-1 Drags Out Even More RuPaul Shows! (Grant Reed, Tom Richmond)
• M*U*S*H * (Arnie Kogen, Jack Davis)
• A MAD Look at TV* (Sergio Aragonés, Colors: Carrie Strachan)
• Deadliest Carts (Amanda Stellberg, Gideon Kendall)
• Spy vs. Spy (Peter Kuper)
• MAD‘s Cable TV Roulette* (Mike Snyder, Colors: Nathan Kane)
• Meanwhile (Ian Boothby, Pia Guerra)
• The Shadow Knows (Sergio Aragonés)
• MAD‘s Reality Street* (Dick DeBartolo Jack Davis, Colors: Nathan Kane)
• General Realistic Ad* (Uncredited)
• The Lighter Side of Television* (Dave Berg, Colors: Raven Juergensen)
• BoobTube- Mash-ups We Can’t Wait to See (Brockton McKinney, Kerry Callen)
• TV… As Viewed by the Animal World* (Paul Coker Jr., Peter Paul Porges, Colors: Raven Jurgensen)
• How a Television Script is Born* (Frank Jacobs, Wally Wood)
• Meanwhile (Ian Boothby, Pia Guerra)
• The MAD Plan for Beating TV Commercial-Breaks* (Al Jaffee, Bob Clarke, Colors: Carrie Strachan)
• More Ridiculous FRIENDS Spinoffs We’re Sure to See…* (Greg Leitman, Drew Friedman)
• 30 Crock* (Arnie Kogen, Tom Richmond)
• Letters! (The Editors)
• The MAD Fold-in* (Al Jaffee)
• Drawn Out Dramas (aka Marginals)** (Sergio Aragonés)

* Denotes Reprinted Material
** Marginals that appear on new features are new, reprinted material features the marginals that appeared in the original printing

Welcome to the “new” MAD Magazine. As promised there is a mix of new and old material in this issue and those going forward. Many of the reprint articles have been fully or partly colorized. The colorists are credited along with the original writers/artists. As always with my “contents” posts, the first name in the credits is the writer, and the second the artist… for example if “Al Jaffee” is credited first and another artist second, Al wrote the piece but did not draw it.

This is interesting. Prior to MAD #463 (March 2006), MAD traditionally credited the artist first and the writer second on articles with a separate artist and writer. As of #463 on, they switched to writer first, artist second. Eagled-eyed MAD historians will notice that the magazine has changed the order of the artist and writer credits on pre-issue 463 reprinted material, now listing the writer first. I’m not sure why they felt the need to do that.

It’s also very much worth noting that this issue of MAD magazine is the first one since issue #103 (June 1966) that does not features a new byline by MAD‘s MADDEST WRITER Dick DeBartolo. That’s a span of 54 years and 459 issues that featured something new written by Dick De. Dick does have his brilliant “MAD‘s Reality Street” reprinted here so his work is represented, but this is the end of one of the most (maybe THE most) prolific streaks of continuous work in a single publication by a writer in comics history.

I have both a new feature (More VH-1 RuPaul Shows) and a reprinted one (30 Crock) in this issue.

Well what are you waiting for, clod? Go out and buy a furshlugginer copy already! Oh, right.. they aren’t in comic book shops until Wednesday.