For the second time in a month, a Carnival Cruise ship — this one called “The Dream” and henceforth known as “The Nightmare” — is suffering power outages and pesky plumbing problems. Note: by “pesky plumbing problems,” we mean what passengers call “large amount of human waste all over the floor in bathrooms and staterooms.” On the positive side, we hear the view from the stench-ridden cabins is lovely this time of year.
MAD has a long history of running a wide variety of material on our back covers: fake ads, magazine parodies, comics, and more. To wrap up 2012, each member of the MAD staff selected a favorite back cover and explained why this one stands out above hundreds of others. Come back tomorrow to see the last pick, and to read them all, click here!
MAD #90, October 1964
Selected by Art Director Sam Viviano
Sam says: "The best use of MAD's back cover, for me, was as a vehicle for ad parodies, which were always so carefully put together that at first look they seemed to be the real thing. This back cover features a takeoff of the ads for Breck Shampoo which had been running for decades in magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal and Harper's Bazaar. These ads featured pastel portraits of beautiful young women with silky long hair, rendered from 1936 to 1957 by Charles Sheldon and thereafter by the illustrator Ralph William Williams. (The campaign ended with Williams' death in 1976.) MAD's takeoff, with the headline, "Make Beautiful Hair BLECCH," portrayed — rather than a beautiful young woman with long, silky hair — a not-so-beautiful young man with long, silky hair (a novelty in 1964) — specifically, Ringo Starr, drummer for the Beatles. The portrait itself was painted with full Ralph William Williams lusciousness by infrequent MAD contributor Frank Frazetta. As an impressionable 11-year-old, I was fascinated by how a single image could be both beautiful and grotesque, precisely accurate and extravagantly exaggerated. It firmed up my ambition, already stoked by countless pages of Mort Drucker art, to pursue a career as a humorous illustrator."
Artist: Frank Frazetta
MAD has a long history of running a wide variety of material on our back covers: fake ads, magazine parodies, comics, and more. To wrap up 2012, each member of the MAD staff selected a favorite back cover and explained why this one stands out above hundreds of others. Come back tomorrow to see another pick, and to read them all, click here!
MAD #308, January 1992
Selected by Senior Editor Joe Raiola
Joe says: "At the risk of blowing my own comedy horn, this parody of an NRA ad, which I wrote with my pal Charlie Kadau, is among my favorite MAD back covers. First, in the pre-Photoshop era, Irving Schild’s photographic wizardry was simply astonishing. But what I love best about this is the back story. Soon after the spoof was published, MAD was deluged with hundreds of letters from angry NRA members, each threatening to 'boycott our advertisers' — at a time when the magazine was advertiser-free. You can’t make this stuff up!"
Writers: Joe Raiola & Charlie Kadau
Photo: Irving Schild
MAD has a long history of running a wide variety of material on our back covers: fake ads, magazine parodies, comics, and more. To wrap up 2012, each member of the MAD staff selected a favorite back cover and explained why this one stands out above hundreds of others. Come back tomorrow to see another pick, and to read them all, click here!
MAD #153, September 1972
Selected by Production Artist Doug Thomson
Doug says: "I both love and cringe at MAD's history of anti-drug and anti-smoking posters. It fascinates me that such a subversive magazine was so quaintly prudish about any sort of drug use, especially in the late 60s and early 70s. Of all of the posters — and there were many — this one is the best. It's so intense and insane. From the ammunition belt filled with syringes to Joe Pusher's raggedy haircut, the whole thing is awesome. As a designer, I love the simplicity of the poster, and its collection of eye-catching details: that crazy hot orange background, the mustard shirt with weird cuff straps, the lone pill that draws your eye to those brown pants with outside fly buttons. The more I look, the dumber and more amazing the whole thing becomes."
Idea: Max Brandel
Photo: Irving Schild
