Mad #237 (Albert Feldstein) - Editor's Warning Issue - March 1983

The March issue of Mad was probably completed just before the December holidays.  And this one seemed a bit incomplete to me.  There is no cover drawing - just a suggestion to saw postage by not complaining.  The editors slapped a note on top of the contents page telling readers how to properly read the magazine.  There was no "Alfred E. Neuman" quote for the first time since the magazine format was started. There were no letters on the Letters page and just one movie parody ("Paltry Guise").  Mort Drucker was missing from the action.  The final article ("A Foreigner's Travel Guide to the United States") was the type of mediocre stuff that usually sits somewhere in the middle.  The editors were correct to suggest that readers "don't write and tell us how bad it is!"

It was not all bad.  Jack Davis was excellent as always and he added several gags to his drawings of Arnie Kogen's Poltergeist parody: Blobbie is reading Vault of Horror; Mom's football jersey number keeps changing from panel to panel; Casper is one of the scary ghosts.  Frank Jacobs wrote eight good poem parodies ("If Famous Poets Had to Make a Living Today") and Jack Rickard found room for Krazy Kat in one of them.  George Woodbridge tried to find some humor in Larry Siegel's "Travel Guide."  I saw King Kong on the splash page.  Martin, Berg, Jaffee, Prohias, Coker, North, Clarke, Torres and Aragones made contributions as well but we expect better.  [JAM 12/30/2010]

Departments:
Special Deffects - Paltry Guise
Don Martin - One Fine Day in Fairbanks, Alaska; One Fine Day in Chicago, Illinois; One Fine Day in Rochester, New York
Rhyme Marches On - If Famous Poets Had to Make a Living Today
Statistickle - Further Additions to ... Mad's Table of Little-Known and Very Useless Weights, Measures & Distances
Photo Play-Offs - The 1982 Mad Yearbook: A Pictorial Look at the News Events of the Year
Jet-Gag - How to Read an Airline Menu
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
Unforked Tongue-in-Cheek - If They Passed Other "Truth In ... Laws"
Sick Humor - Little-Known and Rarely Diagnosed Mad Ailments contracted at ... Airports
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Proctor Scope - Mad's School Teacher of the Year
Serial Ingredient - Some Simple Laws That Make Sense out of Soap Operas
Tour De Farce - A Foreigner's Travel Guide to the United States

Fold-In - Pentagon Transfusion