The MAD Staff Picks Their Favorite Back Covers: Senior Editor Charlie Kadau

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 on Monday to see another pick, and to read them all, click here! 

MAD #210, October 1979
Selected by Senior Editor Charlie Kadau

Charlie says: "It took the nuclear reactor accident at Three Mile Island to finally break Alfred E. Neuman’s cool, clueless exterior. This could have been a front cover — and these days, it more likely would have — so I particularly like that it was painted by Norman Mingo."

Artist: Norman Mingo