Mad #115 (Albert Feldstein) - Missing Alfred Issue - December 1967

Alfred E. Neuman was missing from the cover of Mad for the first issue since Mad #29.  This cover simply showed an Avis-type pin reading "We don't try very hard!"  Although Alfred was not on the outside, he did make two inside appearances as the face on a three-dollar bill and as the "Credibility Gap" for Mad's "Political Dictionary".  The "idiot kid" first appeared on the cover of Mad #21 comic long before he had been given his famous name.

The best article in the issue was the classic television parody, "Star Blecch" by Dick DeBartolo and Mort Drucker.  This article contains the transporter malfunction drawings of "Captain Kook" with a hand sticking out of his each, torso missing from the waist upward, and an arm where one leg should be.  The aliens in the story all look like Don Martin characters including their version of Mount Rushmore.  Drucker's drawings are perfect. [JAM 10/11/2009]

Bumper cars are in the "Grim Prix" race. (page 42)

Mad anticipated computer dating many years before Al Gore invented the internet. (pages 24-25)

Departments:
Waste of Space - Star Blecch
"2" Against "1" - When Hertz-Avis Rivalry Gets out of Hand
Don Martin - In a Supermarket
Poll-Bearers - TV Coverage of an Off-Year Election
Phrasing a Coin - Mad Mintlies
Labor of Love - The Evolution of Dating
Pins and Needles - Protest Buttons Through History
Flowery Language - A Portfolio of Mad Blooming Idiosyncracies
Rapping the Gifted - Prodigy Magazine
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side of Young Marrieds
Glossary Prints - Mad's Pictorial Political Dictionary
Car Sick - Grim Prix
Behind the Odd-Ball - Mad's Believe It or Nuts

Fold-In - Morgue