The MAD Staff Picks Their Favorite Back Covers: Senior Editor Joe Raiola

Classic MAD Dept.

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!"

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Writers: Joe Raiola & Charlie Kadau
Photo: Irving Schild

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The MAD Staff Picks Their Favorite Back Covers: Production Artist Doug Thomson

Classic MAD Dept.

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."

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Idea: Max Brandel
Photo: Irving Schild 

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The MAD Staff Picks Their Favorite Back Covers: Associate Editor Jacob Lambert

Classic MAD Dept.

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 #278, April 1988
Selected by Associate Editor Jacob Lambert

Jacob says: "This was one of the first issues I received as a nine-year-old subscriber, and it’s fair to say that 'Sports Titillated' blew my young mind. The image was upside-down, so that when you flipped it, it felt like you had a whole new magazine in your hands. I was also desperate for anything that approximated the real Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, which my mother had confiscated in an act of protective monstrousness. These two factors, along with a vague undercurrent of strangeness — am I supposed to find her attractive or not? — made this issue one of my early favorites. 'Sports Titillated' seems fairly weak to me now, but, as is so often the case with MAD, it hit me at the right time."

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Photo: Irving Schild

Tags: 
MAD Staff, Back Covers, MAD Back Covers, Staff Favorite Back Covers, Staff Favorites, Jacob Lambert, Irving Schild, Sports Illustrated, Magazine Parodies, Cover Parodies, Sports Titillated
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