Mad #547 (John Ficarra) - Madcoversite Issue - October 2017

Superfan Doug Gilford received made his second appearance in the magazine with a plug for his website on page 4.  The Anton Emdin drawing of Doug with Dick DeMartolo and Alan Bernstein is reprinted from Mad #530 with a screenshot of the home page for www.madcoversite.com.  Since the Mad office is moving to Los Angeles in 2018, it is appropriate for them to try to retain as many fans as possible.

The drawing by Rick Tulka in "The Fundalini Pages" is also appropriate as it shows Editors Sam Viviano, Charlie Kadau and Joe Raoila mourned the final days of Senior VP & Executive Editor John Ficarra.  The rumor is that Ficarra's last issue will be Mad #550.  The next surprise in the issue is that the expected movie or television parody that is usuallyon page 12 is instead "A MAD Look at Wonder Woman by Sergio Aragones.  As much as I like Segio's "Look" jokes, I would much rather see a five-page Desmond Devlin/Tom Richmond treatment.  But, as Ficarro and gang wind their amazing run as kings of print humor, Mad fans again saddled with a seemingly endless barrage of Trump jokes.  The best one in this issue is: "Why Jared Kushner Secretly Met with the Russian Ambassador" drawn by Emdin.  "The MADropolitan Museum of Art", with excellent paintings by Richard Williams, Alejandro Rivas, Mark Stutzman, James Warhola, Robert Parada and Mark Fredrickson, would have been my favorite without the ubiquitous Trumpsters.  Can we get a new subject (and president) please?

In the non-Trump categories, the bests of the issue are "Saturday Afternoon with the IKEA Man," "Dewey Derwin Destroys the World!" and the "Acrimonium" ad parody.  [JAM 7/30/2017]

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Wonder Woman
James And the Giant Impeach - Statements Redacted from the Comey Memos
Bring it to a Spoiling Point - Signs That American Entitlement Has Gone Too Far
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Paint Misbehavin' - The MADropolitan Museum of Art: The Trump Collection 2017
Circle of Strife - Saturday Afternoon with the IKEA Man
The Plane Truth - An Airline Carriers' Service Pledge (That Tells It Like It Is)
To Chill a Mockingbird - Mad's Guide to Exotic Frozen Treats [fake department]
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
All Debts Are Off - How to Reduce College Costs
Rotten to the Encore - The Mad Vault
Character Flawed - Dewey Derwin Destroys the World
Much Ado About Nothing - Overgrowth: The Organic Gardening Catalog
The Fright Stuff - Chilling Thoughts: 2017 Edition
I Can't Believe It's Not Clutter - What's on Vladimir Putin's Desk?

Fold-In - Coffin