MAD Magazine

[21C]

Did anyone grow up on MAD magazine like me?

I bought my first one in 1974 at the age of 10 and I still like them to this day. I bought every issue until 1986 when my librarian ( soon-to-be ) wife said that she could get them for me from her library. It just wasn't the same. Here it is, almost 20 years later and she still brings me my monthly fix of MAD - although now I have to wait until my daughters are finished with them.

I don't know why I still like them but they are a quick and easy read ( usually on the john ) and they just remind me of a simpler time when I was a kid. I'm surprised that some of my childhood 'heroes' like Mort Drucker and Al Jaffee still produce stuff for the magazine today but new guys like former National Lampoon ( another mag from my youth ) artist John Caldwell carry on the tradition.

I like to reminisce about some of the old covers from here with this cover being the first one I ever bought.

[Swaggs]

My brother had a ton of them. I haven't thought about them for years, although I guess MAD TV is supposed to have some affiliation.

I always loved the "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions."

[Bad-example]

Don Martin was my favorite. Al Jaffee had some great stuff too.

I own all the issues of MAD. Well, I have them all on the cd-rom set they released a few years ago. It's called Totally MAD and has every issue from 1952-1998.