Doohickamabob

Just got this one in the mail -- French Mad #1, from 1965. I've been looking for this for a long time, and am very happy to have found it in nice grade. (Now I need to get Italian Mad #1, Danish Mad #1, etc.) My favorite thing about this is the translation of "What, me worry?" to "Quoi -- moi, m'en faire?"

That's cool. Yeah, some of the foreign issue covers are blah, or just U.S. covers with foreign-language text. But they're still kinda cool. It's interesting how some jokes translate completely, and some have to be reworked or discarded. (I'll show some examples of this when I post more of my foreign issues.)

That's a good one. I wonder if those are all compiled somewhere? (Maybe on YouTube?) I really dug MadTV, but the "Mad" connection is pretty nebulous outside of the Spy vs. Spy cartoons. I went with my brother to a live taping once, when Seth Green was the guest star. It was interesting watching a skit performed numerous times, with little bits of improv and variation in each performance (the best moments of which would later be edited seamlessly into a single sketch). During a break in the shooting, Seth Green walked up and talked to us in the studio audience, and said how happy he was to be a part of this because "Mad" had been such a major influence on him during his youth, and on his style of comedy in "Robot Chicken," etc.

I've never seen this one before. I thought I had seen them all. Great cover (that is, in a Fox-y kinda way).

Here's one of my all-time favorite foreign issues. The cover art is absolutely disgusting and disturbing, and that's why I love it. This is Swedish Mad issue #44.

Here are two of my favorite foreign issues in a sequence together. The one on the left is German issue #83. The one on the right is Argentina #1. (This cover concept was based on a Mad article that showed the aftermath of various Mad covers -- I can't remember which issue this was, but it fascinated me when I was a kid, and I longed to enter an alternative reality where such issues existed. Little did I know, they did in fact exist with foreign issues.)

Okay, so let me get the ball rolling on some of my favorite foreign Mad issues. These are from my collection. First, here are some foreign #1 copies: Starting from the upper left and going clockwise, that's the Great Britain #1, the Netherlands #1, the Turkey #1, and the Argentina #1. (Just got the French #1 on eBay, and it's supposedly in the mail from Europe. Can't wait to get it!)

Thanks for posting that. Fun read! Just one brutal page after another. The panel near the end, with the kids, is horrible!

Seconded! This is the nastiest crime story I've ever seen. Completely brutal.

Day-um! The first five Mad comics, all in nice grade!

Fantastic copy! I am sure you could get much more than a song for that now. Probably a whole iPod's worth of songs...

Beautiful collection of sci-fi comics! The sci-fi aesthetic from that time period is so beautiful. I especially like your Startling #48, which looks like a really clean, nice grade.

Some of those Fox Giants are ridiculously scarce. In three-plus years of scanning eBay listings, there are many of them I've never seen come up for sale or auction.

When you're done with that, somebody please explain the connection between Timely, Atlas and Marvel comics. Also I'd like to know what's up with the Youthful Magazines and Trojan connection, and the link between Avon and Realistic.

That ajaxlargo seller is pretty reliable. I have bought way too much stuff from him.

They'd be great for poking holes in coconuts or mangos. And don't forget -- as the L.B. Cole cover of Guns #6 demonstrates, high heels are also great for swimming 'n' shark-fighting.

This Gangsters cover is funny ("If I weren't a gentleman, I would shoot you!") but what is going on with the skull at the lower-right side? Is that anatomically correct, or is there a profile of a face there, or what? It's funky...

Haha, I never noticed that. No wonder his face is green -- just like Mr. Yuk.

That kid's feet must have been pretty messed up afterwards.

What does that green guy look like without the airplane over his nose?

Are you going to wipe your saliva off them first?

The star prevents somebody from spraying ink?

Is that a scene from the end of "The Dead Zone"?

Wow, that is amazing! How many copies do you suppose are out there? Three? I suppose you already know this, but the cover is based on a panel Wally Wood did for the story "V-Vampires!" in Mad Comics #3.

Well I am glad to find there really are some Mad Magazine collectors here. I am going to show some pics of some of my favorite foreign issues later. I also like the idea of some of us doing trades.