Mad #402 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Half Color Issue - February 2001

Under new management, the magazine is continuing its transition from pulp to slick.  This issue contained 27 of 52 pages in full color.  Bill Gaines would not have approved of this gradual change.  What next?  Advertising?  (Yes).  The best of the issue were Mort Drucker's excellent black-and-white caricatures of the West Wing cast in "The Worst Wing".  Mort also found room for the Peanuts gang and Bart Simpson and Henry.  However, we could have done without that Survivor guy.  Bill Wray drew good Lincoln and Nixon caricatures but his Kennedy needs work ("Monroe and ... President's Day").  Tom Bunk found a Mad office in Seattle ("Specialized State Death Penalties").  Sergio Aragones placed himself as the hair stylist in "A Mad Look at the WWF".  And, Angelo Torres had way too much fun with cats in "Meek with the Parents".  I do not not object to the color features except for those devoted to gross and beyond gross subjects.  [JAM 1/22/2014]

Departments:
Prez Dispenser - The Worst Wing
The Wheel World - A Mad Guide to Safe Scootering
Another One Bytes the Dust - Obituaries for Video Game Characters
Behind the Perpetrate Ball - Suburban Deviants and Their Really Minor Crimes
Angster's Paradise - Monroe and ... President's Day
Flop Tarts - Rejected Playboy Playmates
Crime And Funishment - Specialized State Death Penalties
Savings And Groan - A Bank Letter You're Sure to Get
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Flaws & Effect - "Likelihood-of-Outcome" Charts for Those Stupid Things We All Do
The Dissing Link - 6 Degrees of Separation Between Anyone and Anything Part V
Slopey Seconds - Mad's Grand Plan for Converting Cemeteries into Ski Resorts  [fake department]
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at the WWF
So Deniro Yet So Far Off - Meek with the Parents
Revoltage Meter - Gross & Beyond Gross - The Sequel
Grieving Las Vegas - Mad's Celebrity Cause-of-Death Betting Odds  [Jennifer Lopez]

Fold-In - Backpack