wpbooks

Speaking of the devil.....in another corner of the room are a couple specimens I put together as a pre-teen back when the Monster Scenes originally came out....

I have the original store display diorama for Monster Scenes sitting in my living room. Sadly I have no camera with which to take a photo of it. oh man... that's gotta be awesome Happily a friend came by last night, had his phone with him and took this quickie: Yeah...it could use a good dusting.....

I have the original store display diorama for Monster Scenes sitting in my living room. Sadly I have no camera with which to take a photo of it.

I have the complete run. As a TP and David Lynch enthusiast, I consider Wrapped In Plastic essential and one of the most thorough fanzines I've ever come across, dedicated to pretty much one subject. I was hoping for a return now that TP is back in production, but I understand one of the publisher/editor/creators of WIP has died. Don't know if it can therefore be resurrected!

King Kong was the favorite movie of W. M. Gaines, thus that cover being his favorite. I recall this tidbit from the great bio of Gaines by Frank Jacobs, The Mad World of William M. Gaines.

I had my run of all 29 issues of 1984/94 bound into 3 hardcover volumes. One of the most 'effed' up magazines out there for all kinds of reasons, with some of the best art, and more than likely never to be collected due to the inanity and offensiveness of the writing and content, in general. I love it for being so wrong. The first 8 issues are well worth picking up for the Corben. In fact issue 4 has two 8 page color Corben sections in it, and was supposedly taken out of circulation very early on in the run due to a possible infringement lawsuit from Harlan Ellison over one of the stories bearing too much resemblance to A Boy And His Dog.

Well they grade underground comix with hardcore content, no problem. I was a tad embarrassed when I presented my copy of Rory Hayes' C*nt Comics to a female employee of CGC at a Wondercon a number of years ago. She didn't even bat an eye and we had a nice little chat about it as we completed the paperwork. Maybe it's photo representation there's a problem with when it comes to hardcore?

Who's lugging? The binders are sitting on a shelf to the left of me as I type this! They've been there for many years, get picked up and perused from time to time, and I didn't even mention my, not one, but 2 complete and near complete runs of the National Lampoon annuals, specials, calendars, iron-on books, songbook, etc. one set sitting collectibly in short boxes and the other set displayed prominently on a bookshelf in my hallway, spines out! NL was and is an obsession of mine.....I still buy copies I have multiples of when I see them for sale CHEAP!!! I've even taken copies of the Very Large Book of Comical Funnies and the 1964 High School Yearbook Parody and have had them converted into hardcover editions by having my binder remove the covers, mount them onto boards and then reattach them to the text block as one sees in libraries around the world in order to create books that can stand up to abuse. In the case of the Yearbook, in the original first printings the book could be flipped over and set on a table to look like a real yearbook via the faux-yearbook looking back cover. They changed that aspect in later editions and when the book was reprinted a few years ago in hardcover the publisher missed the opportunity to do it right and create a real looking Yearbook. So I went ahead and had it done myself as I'm unaware of paperback yearbooks, only hardcovers! Duh! Don't get me started on my NL LP, pocket size paperback, and button collections! Not to mention a few of their posters and trading cards!

Nice! Mad 'spoon'?

Yours?

Sorry, I have no camera but pix of all my picks can be found pretty easily all over the web or here: http://www.marksverylarge.com/ BTW, if you're interested in Frazetta re:NL I also suggest, along with the three covers and 1 back cover he did as mentioned in previous posts, the November 1971 issue - Horror. Inside there is a comic book parody titled Dragula. Frazetta did the full color cover while Neal Adams again tackled the interior black and white artwork. Great cover, great story and lots o' nekkid ladies, to boot! In my mind it's quite KEY!

While there probably should be a thread devoted to National Lampoon, if we're going to talk KEY then my picks would be threefold! #1 would be The National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody, particularly the original edition which has an upside down and flip over element to it so one can place it on a table and it actually looks like a yearbook from afar, as opposed to the front display cover with the 'cheeky' cheerleader! #2 would be the very obscure hardcover edition of the National Lampoon Encyclopedia Of Humor which has a dust jacket sporting a front cover illustration by Wrightson and a rear cover by Frazetta and includes lots of great interior art by Heath (Cowgirls At War!), Edward Gorey, Vaughn Bode, Jeff Jones and others. However to have a complete copy it must include the pull out Map Of The World at the rear and most importantly the VW ad that was razored out of many copies due to a possible lawsuit that was threatened. #3 would be either the softcover version of #2 or the sequel to #1, i.e. The National Lampoon Sunday Newspaper Parody in it's original packaging with all sections present. In my opinion as a long time collector of many things NL those would be my picks for key magazine issues.

And it contains full color comics from Neal Adams and Vaughn Bode! That issue is a trifecta and I still recall my excitement buying it off the newsstand. I have all my National Lampoons from number one (4/70) to 12/74 sitting in 5 NL binders not 6 feet from where I'm typing this. That magazine is number one in my book especially for those stellar years....art by Adams, Barry Smith, Gray Morrow, Joe Orlando, Russ Heath, Mike Kaluta, Berni Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Frazetta, and so many others. There really should be a collected edition of all the comics created for NL's golden age and beyond!

And also because it has a Neal Adams comic in it titled Deadman, which bears absolutely no resemblance to the DC character! This Deadman is an actual corpse that foils crime!?!? Great issue, to be sure, but you could also include April 1971, June 1972 and August 1973 all of which sport Frazetta covers!

I'd really like to see a pic or two of the above hardcover runs. Are they stitched in somehow? (Lots of tiny pinholes woven to the book binding?) Just curious how that works. I like your idea of putting them in chronological order. That is a good way to keep similar design styles and bonus themes together. Finally figured out how to kind of use my webcam for this since it's the only digital camera I have. Sorry for the lack of finesse!

By all means! It's essential. It's worth getting both the HC and PB as the photo sections are different!

I recall Gaines being quoted in either an interview or in the book The Mad World Of William M. Gaines as saying Mad 24 sold out on the stands almost immediately, and he took it back to press for a quick reprint, to strike while the iron was hot, and also because Kurtzman was going to be late with #25. I've never heard of a way to tell the 2 printings apart, though.

Doesn't that Ccc logo between the date and the number at the left edge signify Curtis Publications aka Marvel? "Curtis Circulation Company, LLC is a company that is in the magazines distribution business. It is also known for lending its name to an affiliated company, Marvel Comics Group, for a line of magazines."

I think it's rarity is due to all the lawsuits brought forth by parents who's kids ended up with broken hands......Somebody's legal team got them pulled off the racks, no doubt!!!

Thanks for that! It's actually better than I remembered!

The only thing I recall about the Gall in The Family Fare audio treat was how bad I thought the impressions were compared to the real actors, and "better yet....Vice President!". I should probably consult my Totally Mad cd-rom set to listen to it again after 40+ years. I always used to confuse the Mad parody of AITF with the one that appeared in Marvel's Spoof #2.

Nice photo. Always like to see our AEN turn up in disparate places! As for the flag, I have to say it was one of the few times Mad actually kind of shocked me as a kid, along with the famed middle finger cover. I understood the message of the flag, but I wasn't used to the way they worded said message, at least in comparison with their usual means of satiric verbiage. I'm pretty sure any publication aimed at kids today wouldn't even try to get away with something like that flag. We live in times where anything gets misconstrued much too easily, and then it spreads like a virus....I'm starting to like the era where that poster came out much more than today...at least nobody was paying attention enough to put the kibosh on it!!!

I have a similar situation with Mad Special #5 which included the Mad Flag Poster. The issue I bought off the stands, and still own, had 2 flags bound in! It's the Mad Annual version of a double cover. I think all double inserts should be awarded a major premium, and you should consider yourself part of a rare breed indeed! You have my respect and everyone should keep an eye out for this type of good fortune. Mads like that are only going to be scarcer since they don't do the insert thing anymore, and I suspect people that may have stumbled onto these mutant Mads in the past might have used one of the inserts even if they were collectors, rationalizing that there was another one in the mag keeping it real, so to speak!

I'd really like to see a pic or two of the above hardcover runs. Are they stitched in somehow? (Lots of tiny pinholes woven to the book binding?) Just curious how that works. I like your idea of putting them in chronological order. That is a good way to keep similar design styles and bonus themes together. Sadly I don't have a cell phone or a digital camera (just can't get myself there for some reason). The mags are stitched together, I believe the term is oversewn. The gutters on the Mads turned out to be wide enough so the book opens with very little loss in the middle and it will lie flat. It's about the size of a phonebook, with black covers made out of a material called arrestox, and gold and silver foil stamping at the spine. ALL my Annuals are in at least Near VF condition and very few if any have the fold-Ins creased. I wasn't even aware of the price variants until I started picking up multiple copies of the Annuals. I'm not sure I have them all, nor do I collect them on purpose, but if one makes it's way into my sight line, I certainly don't miss the opportunity to add it to the collection! For me the two Annuals that were the hardest to find intact and in nice shape were More Trash #8 with the Op-Art Poster and Worst #8 with the Mad Zeppelin (I pick that one up no matter what condition if the Zeppelin is still unmade!). Also, finding copies with the records still attached can be pretty maddening, but I did! The other somewhat frustrating issue was More Trash #7 with the stamp album and Alfred E, Neuman stamps. I've got a few copies where the previous owner was 'kind' enough to apply the stamps to the album....ugh!