On The Stands: MAD #28!

I haven’t done one of these for two years because… why ? MAD is almost all reprinted classic material these days. Not this issue, though! There are a number of new pieces in MAD #28 (aka MAD #578, Dec 2022) to celebrate the magazine’s 70th anniversary! This issue officially released today, and while MAD is usually only available by subscription and in comic book shops, this issue is available at Barnes & Noble.

• Cover: Mark Fredrickson, Suzy Hutchinson (writer)
• Weird Al Loves Wacky Jaffee- “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Plain Ed” Steckley
• MAD Reader– Harvey Kurtzman, Basil Wolverton (MAD #11, May 1954)
• The MAD “Effluent Society” Pollution Primer– Sy Reit, Angelo Torres (MAD #146, Dec 1971)
• Another MAD Look at MAD– Sergio Aragonés, Carrie Strachan (colors)
• Spy vs. Spy– Antonio Prohias (MAD #73, Sept. 1962)
• How to Put Out an Imitation of MAD– Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder & Jack Davis (MAD #41, Sept 1958)
• One Fine Day on Main Street– Al Jaffee (MAD #402, Feb 2001)
• The Bathroom (movie parody of “The Batman)- Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond
• Presenting the Original MAD cover And One MAD Moment Later- Don “Duck” Edwing, Jack Ricard (MAD #190, April 1977 and MAD #191, June 1977)
• Hijinks on the High Seas!– John Ficarra, Sam Viviano
• MAD‘s Avalanche of Catalogs– Charlie Kadau & Joe Raiola, George Woodbridge (MAD #136, Jan 1993)
• MAD‘s Tom Bunk Visits the Senior MAD Home– Tom Bunk
• Star Blecch (TV parody of Star Trek)- Dick DeBartolo, Mort Drucker (MAD #115, Dec 1967)
• Alfred and Omega– Jordan Peele, Richard Williams
• Spy vs. Spy– Peter Kuper
• MAD Dogs and their Owners– Frank Jacobs, Kelly Freas (MAD #39, May 1958)
• Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions– Al Jaffee, Tom Luth (colors) (MAD #486, #494, #512)
• The Castaway– Al Jaffee, Paul Coker (MAD #182, April 1976)
• One Fine Morning in Miami– Don “Duck” Edwing, Jack Davis (MAD 292, Jan 1990)
• A Swinging Jungle Tale– Humberto De La Torre, Jack Davis (MAD #167, June 1974)
• Don Martin Beats the High Cost of Gasoline– Don Martin (MAD $180, Jan 1976)*
• MADical Mystery Tour– Dick DeBartolo, Suzy Splab
• The Best of the Lighter Side of the MAD Office– Dave Berg (MAD #… uh… various)
• MAD Remembers Paul Coker
• Fool Aid, a MAD ad parody– Al Jaffee, Kelly Freas (MAD #67, Dec 1961)
• Special Double Fold-In– Johnny Sampson
• Drawn Out Dramas Sergio Aragonés

For those not familiar or not remembering, the above credits list writer first, then artist, or one name means writer and artist, otherwise as indicated. Twenty two pages of original content here… not too shabby! All of them serious highlights, especially Sergio’s “Another MAD Look at MAD“, John and Sam’s “Hijinks on the High Seas” recounting a MAD trip on a cruise ship, and Johnny’s double fold-in.

Des and I did a five page spoof of “The Batman” for this issue, the first full length movie parody in MAD since he and I did “Aquaman” in MAD #7, June 2019… three plus years! It caused us to take a breather from CLAPTRAP but it was fun to be back in the saddle with MAD.

* Some may note this is the first time any Don Martin work has appeared as reprinted classic material in a MAD in a long time (1017 I think). This is speculation on my part but I believe this is because of an ongoing lawsuit by Don’s widow trying to enforce a trademark on the name “Don Martin” and prevent MAD from reprinting his work. All that work, by the way, was done as work for hire just like virtually all the work ever done for MAD. “Work for hire” means that the publisher owns the copyrights, not the creator. Anyway it’s probable that MAD did not reprint any Martin stuff while the lawsuit was still active. Although the timing is a bit off (unless MAD knew a few weeks beforehand) seeing Martin again may be because it was just announced last week that the lawsuit against MAD finally failed in the last of its appeals. Perhaps we may be able to once again enjoy seeing Don Martin’s work among the classic reprinted material from MAD‘s past in each issue. FWADDAPP!