• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Where are the Mad Magazine collectors?
10 10

1,272 posts in this topic

The first is a parody of the Pharmacy morphing into the superstore;

Is this the article? It's from issue #19 in 1955.

This is similar in concept though my recollection clouded by the years is of a B&W illustration in the vein of MomCo above. I am a great skeptic of memory, I know it to be fallible and open to a great many variations depending on circumstances.

Dang, I am striking out. I wanted to think I was the master of all things Mad. But I am 0 for 2 here...

 

Can we rule out these satires appearing in other publications, such as Cracked, Humbug, Stan Lee's Snafu, and Hugh Hefner's Trump, for examples? You mostly stuck to Mad, right?

 

I was looking through some Al Jaffee stuff. He was one of the most prolific writer/artists, with the most classic material and also most adventurous in terms of trying different formats. A few of his inventions eventually became real things:

167456.jpg.050b44b9cd377cef7aa3937902b041c8.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can we rule out these satires appearing in other publications, such as Cracked, Humbug, Stan Lee's Snafu, and Hugh Hefner's Trump, for examples? You mostly stuck to Mad, right?

 

Can't rule out Cracked though the likelihood is very low as I was never much of a fan. My memories are very clear on these two parodies but as I said, memory is very fragile and fallible (To digress, I have a frequent argument over the "But there were eye-witnesses to the crime" belief that this is the sine qua non of guilt - sorry for the digression).

 

Don't get your knickers in a twist if you can't find them they may not exist (though they should). Thank you for your help so far.

 

hip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone is interested, I am selling off a big collection of Mad Mags from 1969-early 2000s. Lot of real gems in there.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222376323539?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

Nice photos. Is the tiger rug included in the sale?

 

Just an FYI for future posts like this: There is a Magazine selling/trading thread in this area. I wrote a post to "bump" it to Page 1. It's not a big concern in the magazine part of the forum, because there's not much activity here, but in the comics areas they ask you to keep sales-related posts to one thread (best practice is to point people to a larger post in the sales forum).

 

Anyway, looks like a decent set of issues with some potential as upgrades for people who have already completed the run.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This artist is not from the era of my most fervent Mad-reading, so I don't know much about him. But RIP nonetheless. Here is what Mad posted on their Facebook page:

-------------------

 

Classic MAD Dept.

GERRY GERSTEN, MAD ARTIST, RIP

 

We’re sorry to report that 2017 is picking up where 2016 left off, with the passing of yet another MAD contributor. Gerry Gersten, one of MAD’s most talented caricaturists, passed away over the weekend. With his pencil on vellum technique, Gerry produced many full-page impact pieces of art for MAD, including memorable drawings of Ronald Reagan, Dr. Ruth and Elvis Presley. Our condolences go out to Gerry’s family. We will have more on Gerry’s career in MAD #545.

 

From MAD #285, March 1989

Artist: Gerry Gersten

167501.jpg.124f057581d01f681b8eea1ad2f02531.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can we rule out these satires appearing in other publications, such as Cracked, Humbug, Stan Lee's Snafu, and Hugh Hefner's Trump, for examples? You mostly stuck to Mad, right?

Can't rule out Cracked though the likelihood is very low as I was never much of a fan. My memories are very clear on these two parodies but as I said, memory is very fragile and fallible (To digress, I have a frequent argument over the "But there were eye-witnesses to the crime" belief that this is the sine qua non of guilt - sorry for the digression).

I agree, memory is an unreliable thing. One of the most unrealistic tropes of movies is when characters slowly regain their memories in vivid detail. The unfortunate truth is that with the right suggestion or imagination, people can "remember" things that never happened.

 

Anyway, I'll keep looking for what you describe. Now it's a vendetta. I will take it slow though. This makes a good excuse to go back and read through Mad issues.

 

One of the things about the older Mads is that I never had the magazines as a kid. Only later did I go back and collect them. Most of their material I only ever read via specials, or via paperbacks. There's quite a bit of great stuff in the earlier magazines that either wasn't reprinted, or that wasn't reprinted in anything I got a chance to read. The early era of the magazine, with Wally Wood and Joe Orlando art, has a different and more anarchistic flavor than the heyday when editor Al Feldstein had a more regular stable of "insufficiently_thoughtful_person" contributors.

 

Don't get your knickers in a twist if you can't find them they may not exist (though they should).

I often lose my knickers.

 

P.S. Here's a graphic from 1954 where Mad is making fun of all its imitators. I read that William Gaines put each competitor on the wall and would write an "X" on it (or something -- put a dart in in?) whenever each title went bust. This piece cleverly builds a line of text around nearly all of 'em....in alphabetical order!

167502.jpg.8e409687af456457cccc7a12a92d1424.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A question for the Mad Magazine Collectors:

 

In 1978, I bought several of the Mad 196 Star Wars editions (as well as the Jan 1978 Cracked SW cover) and just bagged and stored them. There is not a lot of info on higher quality copies other than the Gaines copies. Are they worth getting graded? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A question for the Mad Magazine Collectors: In 1978, I bought several of the Mad 196 Star Wars editions (as well as the Jan 1978 Cracked SW cover) and just bagged and stored them. There is not a lot of info on higher quality copies other than the Gaines copies. Are they worth getting graded? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I did an eBay search on completed listings for that issue and it is not worth a lot even in the higher grades. One copy described as high grade sold in auction for $25. There was a CGC-graded 9.6 copy that was alleged to be the highest graded copy (and perhaps was, though it might be tied with other copies) and it sold for $125.

 

My opinion is if you have an issue that stands out as being off-the-newsstand fresh, to the point where it could qualify as 9.6 or 9.8, it would be fun to grade it as an experiment -- if it's something you personally like and want to slab for the long run. If you're looking to make a profit selling all the issues, I don't know that slabbing would make a big difference if they graded 9.4 or lower. You might take a lot of photos of each in raw form, and put them on eBay as BIN's for $25 - $50 or something, because I think they would sell eventually due to the "Star Wars" connection.

 

Not to put down the artist Jack Rickard, who was always a great artist (and did a respectable job of stepping into the cover-art role occupied by Norman Mingo), but this cover doesn't stand out as a Mad classic. I like the later issue with the "Mad musical" (with characters kind of dancing) a little better. Oddly enough, the giant Darth Vader helmet on Alfred E. Neuman makes me think of Rick Moranis doing the "Dark Helmet" character in the Mel Brooks movie "Spaceballs."

 

Kudos on saving and storing all those "Star Wars" Mads, plus the Cracked issue. I also remember that I think the first issue of a magazine called Pizazz had a good "Star Wars" cover, and I know Crazy had some "Star Wars" issues. (And many other mags of course...) It would be cool to see a photo of your mags if you have one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those look great but with the little corner tear, the Mad probably isn't going to beat the highest-graded copy. What are the interior pages like -- much discoloration?

 

I am not very good at the differences in high-graded copies. There is an area here where you can post pictures and people will estimate what grade you'd be likely to get. It's called Hey buddy, can you spare a grade? and you'll get some very helpful feedback, though you'll want to post additional photos showing the back cover, and some of the interior.

 

Beautiful copies nonetheless!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is the other copy and the interior. I was worried about page quality when I started sending in comics for grading, but 900 out of 910 came back WP.

 

6LRcDtL.jpg

 

 

salfyur.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those who want to see Mad 196, here are some images of the Star Wars segment (some of the images near the spine are not great, but I'm not stressing the spine any more than I have to).

 

gC50LXz.jpg

 

yNPGEZC.jpg

 

Cr38Gmx.jpg

 

GJGug6i.jpg

 

4loUS21.jpg

 

gYakBrg.jpg

 

y7jiDqd.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those who want to see Mad 196, here are some images of the Star Wars segment (some of the images near the spine are not great, but I'm not stressing the spine any more than I have to).

 

Interesting thing about the Mad satire of "Star Wars" is they tried out a new artist, Harry North, for one of the biggest movies of that year. I was surprised they didn't get Mort Drucker to work his magic on it, but I assume Mort must have been tied up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still love this SW parody. I'm sorry if I am taking up space with the pages.... these were my most favorite years of collecting.

No problem. It's still a great parody, like you said. They got Mort Drucker to do the Empire Strikes Back satire and he had a lot of fun with that (the final panel shows that they "fixed" Luke's severed hand, but they accidentally put a foot there in its place).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still love this SW parody. I'm sorry if I am taking up space with the pages.... these were my most favorite years of collecting.

No problem. It's still a great parody, like you said. They got Mort Drucker to do the Empire Strikes Back satire and he had a lot of fun with that (the final panel shows that they "fixed" Luke's severed hand, but they accidentally put a foot there in its place).

 

Is that the one where Han literally has a price on his head?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still love this SW parody. I'm sorry if I am taking up space with the pages.... these were my most favorite years of collecting.

No problem. It's still a great parody, like you said. They got Mort Drucker to do the Empire Strikes Back satire and he had a lot of fun with that (the final panel shows that they "fixed" Luke's severed hand, but they accidentally put a foot there in its place).

Is that the one where Han literally has a price on his head?

That's the one!

167729.jpg.8ec557100f6da9c6194fbdf75a713d41.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny note about the Mad satire of "Empire Strikes Back": From a late panel, it is clear that Mort Drucker did not actually see the movie (or his memory was poor). After Han Solo has already been frozen in carbonite and Luke needs to be rescued from the underside of Cloud City, Drucker draws Leia in the Millennium Falcon saying they need to save Luke -- and Han Solo is sitting next to her! My understanding is often these satires were put together before the movie was released, and the movie studios supplied Mad with several dozen production stills to draw from. The satire's writer might have viewed an advanced preview of the film, but the artist might not have gone. Still, it's a pretty distracting mistake. I'm sure Drucker didn't lose a lot of sleep over it or anything.

167730.jpg.dec1a03d264231b3b2f4071415ac77a0.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
10 10