You've no doubt seen the image shown below -- an impressive cover by the renown science fiction artist, Kelly Freas, for the 59th issue of MAD (December 1960). This humorous Halloween cover has been plastered all over the internet for years. You'll notice that at the top the title reads "Special Halloween Issue". Anyone who has looked at the interior of this issue will immediately notice there are no Halloween articles in it -- no ghost, no goblins, no parodies, no nuthin'.
So what's the deal? The secret to the mystery can again be found on the cover. Notice the date? It's December! In what should have Alfred E. Neuman spoofing Santa Claus, we have him pictured as the Headless Horseman. Well, I believe the switch on holiday iconography was obviously intended, so the jokes on us!
On the other hand, the December 2019 issue of MAD -- the first part of which is posted here today -- contains plenty of jolly, jovial -- and occasionally quite humorous -- monster fun. It is the 10th issue of the renumbered series after DC Comics bought the title and summarily turned it into a heap of political rant rags. This issue, thankfully, has little politics and lots of monsters. Plus, it sports a super Jason Edmiston cover, albeit a little gross -- but when it comes to MAD, sometimes that's the point, isn't it?
Are they still accepting reader submissions? Sure looks that way, judging from the quality of some of the pieces.
ReplyDeleteSomeone apparently doesn't know or care that there was a Saturday morning cartoon 38 years ago entitled Meatballs & Spaghetti, and from the competition, no less (Marvel Productions).
Interesting factoid!
ReplyDelete"So what's the deal? The secret to the mystery can again be found on the cover. Notice the date? It's December! In what should have Alfred E. Neuman spoofing Santa Claus, we have him pictured as the Headless Horseman."
ReplyDeleteBased on the research I did for my Vampirella book—From the Stars...a Vampiress—and Warren on-sale dates, since Mad back then was sold on newsstands, in all likelihood the issue was published in October—hence the Halloween cover—with an off-sale date of December, to reflect how much time it could be left on the racks. Also, according to its indicia, Mad was published "monthly except for February, May, August and November," so the October to December time lag would have been to cover the slip month.
Somebody cue that "The More You Know" PSA music... ;-)
I considered that too, as magazines' cover dates have always been ahead in the calendar. Still, we all missed the opportunity of the "usual idiots" to give us some good monster mirth for the October issue.
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