Mad #178 (Albert Feldstein) - Twelve Horsemen Issue - October 1975

In Mad #176, Tom Koch wrote an article ("Talent Evaluation Ads for Other Career Training Programs") that included the "Horse Drawers' Art Instructional School."  Well, this was just too much temptation for the "usual gang of idiots."  The gang hijacked the letters page of issue #178 with their renditions of the sample horse.  The twelve drawings (Rickard, Martin, Coker, Drucker, Jaffee, Prohias, Clarke, Berg, Davis, Torres, Aragones and Woodbridge) show the diversity of talent available to Mad editors in the mid-1970s.  Of the twelve, my favorite is the one by Jaffee which is actually a self-portrait of Al in a bad horse costume.

The issue also presented the first of four appearances by noted illustrator, Sandy Kossin ("A Mad Look at Some Well-Kept Celebrities' Secrets").  Mr. Kossin is better known for his excellent color drawings for children's books.

And, Don Martin returned to his favorite subject (Mount Rushmore) with the world's largest q-tip. [JAM 6/26/2010]

Departments:
"Family" Reunion - The Oddfather Part, Too!
Acts to Grind - The Mad Circus
Don Martin - One Day in South Dakota; One Saturday Night at the North Pole
Currency Events - The Mad Economics Primer
Rocking the Quote - Zappers That History Forgot
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
The Game of the Name - Distinctive Business and Social Cards
Spin-Offspring - The "All in the Family" Tree
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side of Gardening
Give Us a "Break" - A TV Ad We'd Like to See (The Geritol Commercial)
Peek of Success - A Mad Look at Some Well-Kept Celebrities' Secrets
From Bad Times to Verse - Mad's Recession Mother Goose
Loco-Motive - Muddle on the Orient Express

Fold-In - Welfare Line