The MAD Staff Picks Their Favorite Back Covers: Editor John Ficarra

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. To read them all, click here! 

MAD #230, April 1982
Selected by Editor John Ficarra

John says: "I first saw this back cover when I was still a newbie at MAD. I remember laughing out loud from it. It was the first time that I had ever been exposed to John (The Hammerhead) Caldwell’s art and I just loved his style. Looking at it today, 30 years later, I still love John’s style, but I also have a greater appreciation of his pacing and his element of surprise. You never see the joke coming. The fact that the joke is a cheap toilet gag — a staple of MAD — is a bonus, and something I think we can all embrace."

Writer and Artist: John Caldwell