Mad #469 (John Ficarra) - Roids of Summer Issue - September 2006

Barry Bonds is and always has been a selfish jerk.  I write that not only because I am a Dodger fan.  Just ask his ex-wives/girlfriends.  Bonds would say "What, me worry?" since Baseball paid him $188 million to hit his performance-enhanced home runs.  The baseball drug storm reached its peak in 2006 as cheater Bonds broke all baseball power records and numerous leaks about the rampant drug use were hitting media outlets.  Mad chose this issue to join the clamor in its special way.  Mark Fredrickson drew the infamous cover with the Bonds/Alf bulging muscles and hypodermic needles.  The index page is replaced by a fake letter from Commissioner Bud Selig to ease the pain of the satires to come.  Bonds and his fellow junkies get the full Mad treatment from Frank Jacobs with another great parody of Casey at the Bat ("Barry at the Bat") with drawings by Sam Sisco.  See also "Howard at the Mike" (Mad #155 [Cosell] & 339 [Stern]), "Casey at the Byte" (Mad #258), "Baseball at the Bat" (Mad #291) and "Jordan at the Hoop" (Mad #413).  Jacob Lambert and Paul Coker added "Classy Ways to Celebrate Barry Bonds' Historic Season", followed by "Little Leaguers on Steroids Trading Cards" by Frank Santopadre with card drawings by Mick Coulas and Sam Viviano.  To his credit, Commissioner Selig has imposed drug testing on the sport that have reduced the amount of offenders and homers.

Three months after The Da Vinci Code cover (Mad #466), we finally get a movie parody ("The Da Vinci Coma") by Dick DeBartolo and Mort Drucker.  The parody is just four pages and stuck on page 40.  The drawings by 77-year-old Drucker are as good as ever.  Although the Druckerisms are most missing, he did give a tribute to Walt Kelly (1913-1973) & Pogo, and The Last Supper is updated to include cell phones.  [JAM 10/19/2014]

Color Pages: 54 of 60 pages (90%)
Humorous Content: 45 of 60 pages (75%)

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages
You Cruise, You Lose - Mission: Implausible 3
The Roids of Summer - Barry at the Bat
In Blog We Trust - Planet Tad!!!!!
Tears for Spears - Mad's Exclusive Outtakes from Britney's Dateline NBC Interview!
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at [X-Men] The Last Stand
And the Cheat Goes On - Classy Ways to Celebrate Barry Bands' Historic Season
Bad to the Milkbone - Malicious Seeing-Eye Dogs
Hanks, But No Thanks - The Da Vinci Coma
Louisville Druggers - Little Leaguers on Steroids Trading Cards
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Tilt-A-World - What If Carnival Workers Were Major Players in Politics?
Crappy Anniversary - Mad Celebrates 25 Years of MTV

Fold-In - Bush Cabinet