The Artist won a stunning five Oscars on Sunday, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director — but the French film still lags behind insipid garbage like This Means War, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and Ghost Rider: Nicolas Cage’s Flamin’ Spittle. In fact, the only way that The Artist might gain traction in American multiplexes is if it’s dumbed down a bit — in other words, less think, more stink.
Cover Artist: Kelly Freas
Fans of AMC’s Mad Men are rabidly anticipating the long-delayed fifth season of the show, and their interest was predictably stoked by the recent release of a “mysterious” promo ad, which seems designed to provoke deep questions: “What does it represent?” “Is it a meditation on Don Draper’s empty soul?” “Why does Dr. Pepper taste like that?” But the most relevant question here might be, “What’s going through Draper’s giant, Brylcreemed head?” As always, we’re here with the answers. 
Holy half-pound hot dogs! Take a look at this amazing splash from the Mike & Molly satire in our current issue, MAD #514. It's by National Cartoonist Society "Cartoonist of the Year" nominee Tom Richmond from a script by Arnie Kogen! Click the art to make it super-sized. 
Do yourself a favor and spend the rest of the day enjoying Tom's mindbogglingly great art on his website here! To read our Mike & Molly spoof, pick up MAD #514, on sale now! But don't stop there — never miss a MAD TV satire by subscribing today!
MAD aficionado Doug Gilford (co-winner of our recent "Guess the Cover" competition) alerted us to another MAD fan's questionable interior decorating decision: wallpapering his home office with MAD covers!
The enigmatically single-named "Jamie" explained his thought process to Doug:
"About 13 years ago I bought a house and really wanted to make my office something unique. I decided to laser copy some of my favorite Mad covers and use them as wallpaper. To this day I've not grown tired of looking at them, mainly because I have no business and only use my office to walk through to get to my bar out back."
Thanks to Doug for the heads up! Jamie, if you're reading this: keep this decorating motif in mind for the rubber room you'll probably be in soon!
The Oscars are this Sunday night — and by now all the nominees have already scored their free tuxedos, gowns and jewelry from designers desperate to have their names mentioned on the red carpet. All that’s left for them to do is to score some sedatives for the big night and finish writing their acceptance speeches...unless you’re Glenn Close. Sorry, G.C., but you don’t stand a chance in hell with that stupid cross-dressing movie! 15 years of planning for that?!?! Seriously?!? You made TWO 101 Dalmatian movies in just four years! (And you KNOW how hard it is to work with dogs!) Well, we hear the orchestra starting to play, so we guess our time for this little introduction is about over. Here’s... 
The odds-on favorite to win Best Picture at this Sunday’s Academy Awards is The Artist —the silent, black-and-white French film that has been seen by as many as seven dozen American moviegoers. But if it wins the Oscar, its profile is sure to rise — which is why we were thrilled to get our hands on these just-leaked, eminently quotable outtakes. 
Recently, cartoonist Rich Burlew raised a mind-melting $1.2 million to produce a print version of The Order of the Stick, his role-playing themed webcomic. How did Burlew do it? Through a nifty online quasi-Ponzi begfest known as Kickstarter. But for every Order of the Stick success story, there are countless failures. 
Satan rose to power after being cast out of Heaven. Rick Santorum has risen to power after being cast out of the Senate. But if you think the similarities stop there, think again, heathen! 
David Wain might be a big shot director and New York Times darling now, but we had him first. Thanks to MAD reader Kenneth Mok for the snap! 
The sneaker-freak world is abuzz with news of this Friday’s release of Nike’s limited-edition Foamposite “Galaxy” shoes — footwear so starry purple, so glow-in-the-dark, and so comically overpriced that people are already camping out for a chance at their own $220 pair. And with the long wait ahead, they’ve got plenty of time to chatter. 
