Sergio Aragones custom artwork

Back in 1994 I had the pleasure of meeting Sergio Aragones for the first time at the Vancouver Comic Con. It was my first comic con and I had heard that when you meet artists etc, you were usually allowed to get one item signed and a photo and then sent on your way. I brought one issue of Groo the Wanderer to get signed and expected that would be it. When I went to his booth, he was sitting there working on artwork for an upcoming issue of Groo. He was really nice and signed my comic and showed me what he was working on. He said that he had spilled coffee on some pages he was drawing on the plane, so was doing them again (I guess thats ok when you are the worlds fastest cartoonist). I also asked him if he would do a drawing of Groo as a fireman for my KISS magazine, Firehouse Magazine. He said sure, but that he would do Alfred E Neuman. I'm not sure why he didn't want to do Groo (I would have been so much more excited for drawing of my favourite comic book character Groo), but I walked away with a really cool addition to my collection.

Mad Magazine issue #1000

Look for issue #1000 of Mad Magazine in the year 2134! Until then, check out The Usual Gang of Idiots as they celebrate their 500th issue on newsstands now - or where ever you can still find printed materials for sale!
It's MAD's 500th issue! And it's jam-packed with just as much stupidity as you'd expect! For starters, we're welcoming back some legendary members of the Usual Gang of Idiots who haven't appeared in MAD for years! And to mark this landmark issue, Sergio Aragones is showing off his 500 (that's right five HUNDRED!) favorite Marginal cartoons! Plus, there's Al Jaffee's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions and the MAD Fold-In! And, of course, you'll find our typical stupidity, mocking the new Wolverine movie, The Jonas Brothers, The Octo-Mom, Google, Man-Boobs and so more! So stop reading and start celebrating – 56 pages for just $5.99 US - go buy an issue NOW!

Mad Magazine Fold In

Remember those great Mad Magazine Fold Ins they used to have on the inside back cover of the magazine? I do, and I loved them, which is why I was thrilled to find this ad for Dodge on the back cover of issue #465 (May 2006) of Mad Magazine, which I picked up at a recent library book sale for 10 cents.
Just click on the slick graphic I have whipped up to recreate the all the excitement, without the headache of trying to fold these things just right to get them to work.

Some Mad Summer Reading

Here are a few Mad paperbacks I picked up recently. I have shelves full of these things. They are always a fun read, and I just about always love the covers.
The four I found this time include: Clods' Letters to Mad, illustrated by Al Jafee from 1981, The Rip Off Mad from 1978 (first printing 1973), Mad Horses Around 1981, and Pumping Mad from 1981.

Mad Magazine Flexi Discs

Do you remember those great flexi disc records that used to come on the back of cereal boxes, inside magazines etc? I do. And I used to love them. Magazines like this 1982 Super Special Summer issue which came witch featured a free super special bonus: The mad Laugh Records, was always something I wanted to buy as a kid. The idea of being able to purchase a magazine and then actually hear the sounds on the little flexi disc included inside was a real treat!
I have a few flexi discs that I have purchased over the years at junk sales etc, but all of the ones I had as a kid seem to have disappeared - most likely ending up in the trash as they "wore out" from continues use on my super special (aka really cheap and crappy) record player.
This recent issue of Mad Magazine I picked up was one of those great magazines that had a flexi disc inside. But of course now, 26 years later, the magazine is still in pretty good shape, but the flexi is long gone.

The Sixth MAD Case Book on Spy Vs Spy

Here is a great paperback I picked up other day for a quarter. It's The Sixth MAD Vase Book on Spy Vs. Spy, by Prohias. The book is from 1982 and the cover price was $1.95. For anyone who ever read Mad magazine, I am sure you will be very familiar with Spy Vs Spy. As a kid, it was one of my favorite parts of any Mad magazine issue, along with the little Mad Marginals (those silly little drawings in the margins of the magazine) done by Sergio Aragones.
For those of you who have missed out on the antics of the White & Black spy, run, don't walk, to your local bookseller and pick up a copy of the recently released Spy Vs Spy: The Complete Casebook volumes 1 & 2. They are full of stuff that will have you giggling for hours!
You can also check out Youtube.com for all kinds of Spy Vs Spy fun. There are the shorts from Mad TV, and you can also find the Mountain Dew commercial featuring the two wacky spies.
This book features 15 of their "cases", and the Black Spy has the edge with 8 "Wins" to 7 for the White Spy. I wonder how many "cases" there have been over the years? And, of all those "cases", I wonder if one of these guys comes out a winner, or are they both really the looser.

Mad about Magic

I picked up this great Mad Magazine pocket novel "The Mad book of Magic and other Dirty Tricks" by Al Jaffee (1970) at a local thrift shop the other day. Bing a huge fan of magic and Mad, I was thrilled to find this amongst a bunch of romance novels and out of date computer books. Well worth my 65 cents, as this book is filled with great magic tricks, and other dirty tricks.
The forward to the book reads: [If there is one word that is the byword of all magicians that word would have to be SECRECY. In the foreword of every book ever written by a magician, the reader is always constrained never ever to reveal a trick's secrets. The reader is told that this is some sort of unwritten but nevertheless inviolate magician's code. And somehow, this code is honored by millions of readers of millions of books that show how millions of tricks are done.
But as far as we are are concerned, this is all nonsense. Our tricks do not need to be kept secret. Our tricks do not have to be hidden. Our tricks do not have to be reserved for a chosen few. Why...? Why do we fly in the face of tradition? Because our tricks do not work, that is why.
Anyway, we just don't go in for sill codes and restrictions. Go ahead and tell anyone whatever you want from this book. Tell them all you like to your heart's content. Just one little thing we ask you not do do with this book. Don't lend it. Lending means not buying. Not buying means that not only won't the tricks in this book work, but the author of the book won't work either.
And now on this entertaining, engrossing, fascination, and ofter diverting volume about which one reviewer said, "Once you've started reading, you'll certainly want to pit it down."]
Ok, I know what they just said, but I don't want to get in trouble with the Secret Magic Society, so do me a favour and don't tell any one you just read this blog.