Mad #154 (Albert Feldstein) - Corncob Issue - October 1972

Jack Davis obviously had a great time illustrating Dick DeBartolo's parody of the John Wayne (1907-1979) movie, The Cowboys.  The fight scene on page 11 reminds me of the wonderful cluttered panels of the Kurtzman Mad comics including false teeth, a loose tooth and a loose cartoon eyeball.  There is the schoolmarm scene with imaginary numbers and a quadratic formula on the chalkboard as one student hits another with a peashooter.  There are the young cowpokes waiting to ride the bronco with pillows in their pants.  The outlaw is wearing a hand grenade and a smile-face pin.  John Wayne is the tough guy who sleeps with a teddy bear and his thumb in his mouth.  And, the cowboy cook serves oysters on the half shell and string beans almondine on a table with candelabra, wine glasses and a baby bottle.  These are the clever inside jokes that established Mad as the first and best of all humor periodicals.  [JAM 3/22/2010]

Look for the Al Jaffee self-portrait in "The Mad Car-Owners Hate Book" and the stool pigeon & hairy ape in prison in "The Cute Rook."

Reader Neil Whalert identified writer Frank Jacobs as the patient on the back cover.

David Susskind (1920-1987) lives on "Knowitall Pkwy" in "The Television Yellow Pages."

Departments:
Short in the Saddle - The Cowkids
Odd Ball in the Back Pocket - Howard Hughes' Wallet
Our Goose Is Cooked - Mad's Ecology Mother Goose
Pick-Up Schticks - When You Watch TV, You Can Be Sure of Seeing
Don Martin - One Day at the Bullfights; One Day During a Cavalry Attack; One Night in a Bar Along the Highway
Car Sick - The Mad Car-Owners Hate Book
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Knowing Your Left From Your Right - The Mad Guide to Political Types
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side of Hang-Ups
Show Biz-zy Signals - The Television Yellow Pages
The Heist of Idiocy - The Cute Rook

Fold-In - Toilet