MAD Reprint Redux (Again, Once More)

Two days after posting about the mostly-reprint MAD #30, today the mail brought contributor copies of something called MAD Treasure Trove Of Trash vol. 5 (2023 Barnes & Noble Edition). Which is all-reprint. And reprints much of the material from the also newly-released MAD #30. Which is why we were sent comps. 

A lot of the things I wrote about MAD #30 can be said about this publication, regarding the dated quality of the material. A lot of it passes okay because it's less targeted (young folks know what steel factories are like, or must be like in the popular imagination, they can chortle (or not) at "funny" "accidental inventions" such as how mousetraps "were invented", but they will (probably) not know who Tila Tequila is, although there is context. Still, older MAD reprints generally don't name-check obscure celebrities or obscure anything, because it understood that it was a mass-market magazine in a time where mass market really meant, uh, mass market. The Tila Tequila types of yesteryear were regularly on talk shows watched by millions. If you were a famous axe-throwing guy or ventriloquist in 1976, it was because you were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, not on stage. Or something like that, I'm not sure I even know where I'm going with that bit. Forgive me. 

Anyway! Hey, here's a Mapquest joke we illustrated! As always, I overdid it. But I was happy with the extra details, and so were our editors. Did readers care for it? I have no idea. The work was its own reward. And the check. But I always tried to do extra, I was always under the spell created by looking at Will Elder's work as a kid. And as an adult...

There wasn't much I could add to this online casino illustration below, so I just made the croupier look as much like a Satanic snake oil salesman-type as possible.  Lookin at it now there seems to be a slight Tim Curry bent to it. I remember drawing that Jack of Spades was a pain in the ass, I am positive of it because my hand twitched when I first spied it. 

Look! It's our names! Right below some mishegas about boffing celebrities or something that happened in 2008 or 2007 or whatever.  

What I can say about the MAD Treasure Trove of Trash is that it is clearly and purposely an all-reprint collection. Which is what I wish was all that MAD was publishing as far as reprints go. There's such a big difference between a bi-annual 96-page MAD reprint retrospective and a "new" issue that's practically all-reprint with a new cover. One's basically a "Best Of" (arguably, obviously) and another is a synthetic Magbot.  

Anyway, now there's four more copies of MAD in the house. I'll keep one for the nerd HOF files and sell the other three, or include them in book or art sales as things work out. Speaking of book sales, I'll be putting something up from the coffers shortly for the $5 and $10 Patreon backers. Cheap! (not really, sorry).