Who wasn't a reader of MAD magazine? If you were a kid , you probably read comics books or Mad or both. If you were a fanatic about Mad, you collected all the issues and you got paperbacks from your favorite "Maddest Artist". I have all the Al Jaffee and Don Martin "Mad books" as well as the Spy Vs. Spy series and lots of non-Mad paperbacks featuring my favorite artist, Mr. Jaffee. I even designed a "Aztec" mad paperback holder in our clay making class. I got a C- for it because the project was supposed to be make something "Aztec", but it was a snake around a container that held 6 paperbacks and "MAD" carved into it. This is some of the "Mad" debris that I collected and saved in a place where I know I'll find it. The issue of Mad was given to me as a birthday present by Mom or somebody that didn't know I would buy the latest Mad when it was hot off the presses. Mad also released "stickers" that I likely have some place,  but I'll be damned if I know where they are. I don't think I collected them all, because they came out after I was pretty much done as a Mad reader.

Here was a story on the publisher of Mad, Mr. Jerry Garcia. I hear he played guitar in some band...oh... *BAD JOKE HERE* it's William Gaines. Hey, guys with beards you know? Who can tell them apart? Let's see, they both worked for the brothers Warner. Check. They both travelled. Check. They both warped the minds of many youth. Check. You found the material they produce more interesting when stoned. Check. Maybe? This was taken from my local news paper back when Cleveland had TWO daily newspapers. Quite a change from the half a newspaper we have now. It's another piece of debris I saved.

It's neat that I also save this little clip. Wanting more money, plans were set for a Mad magazine movie. It's funny that the writer of the "Mad" movie is in a cult movie called "Fatso" with Dom DeLouise. On my radio show, we do an imitation of two fat food show hosts which is an imitation of something done by Don & Mike which itself is a parody of Fatso. It's not a good movie, but when Don and Mike did imitations of the fat guys, that was funny. So, the movie was called "Up The Academy". It was a cheap college movie as those were popular in the early 80's. Yes, Alfred E Newman was in it as a statue in front of the college. That was the only, vague reference to Mad Magazine there was. They also put full page ads in the back of Mad. I wanted to see it, but I don't think anybody saw it. It was such a bad movie that even Bill Gaines denied it was even somewhat tied to Mad. When all was said and done, the usual gang of idiots had nothing to do with the movie and it faded into bad movie history.

Right turn Clyde. *BAP* When I see old newspaper clippings, I like to check out some of the things on the BACK of the clippings, and well, here was an ad for a horrible horror movie called "Parasite" and NONE of the theaters that showed  it are in business anymore. "Mentor Mall" is the only one that's sort of around, it moved to a building on the mall property. "Enter The Ninja" was at a few drive in movies. Hahahahaha. You mean you used to go to a movie while sitting in your car? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Many of these were classic movie houses but look to "cinema treasures" if you're interested in seeing what they were. I'm moving along now...

NO! WAIT! Look at THIS! Enamel "Cooking Pots" were advertised for $4.44 and $5.55.  You get 6 more quarts for another buck? Suck a deal. (Yes, I know...) Real reason to put this in, it's ZAYRE! It was a discount outlet that is fondly remembered and one of the first stores to go "24 Hours Until Christmas". I had a car, I was awake at 2 am, and I'd go look at the Soundesign stereos and Gold Star VCR's.  It's nice to know you can still find Zayre stores by the downward arching roof at the front of the store. Lots of places, didn't disguise the roof. Plus, TJ Maxx, Office Max and BJs Wholesale Clubs are all the offshoot companies of the old Zayre. Some of the stores are in the old Zayre stores. We have a TJ Maxx and Office Max inside a Zayre/Grocery Store combo and you can still see a bit. I could wax historic about retail  history, but that is for another blog...now here's what the topic refers too....

Yay! More Mad crap designed to get your money with very little involvement from the artists and writers over at the magazine I collected. Parker Brothers licensed every damn thing they could and put out these games for the kiddies who were fans of whatever crap was on the game. Sure, there was game play involved, but for the most part, cheap buck made by all. Any family game night begin with "Let's play the Mad Magazine game or the Garfield game?"

It had pretty good cover art by Mad contributor Jack Davis. Jack was big in advertising and did thousands of drawings besides the free lance stuff he made for mad. Taking a look at the guy in the crowd with the raised hand and tooth missing or the little girl with two teeth is pretty much signature Jack Davis art. Seems exciting right?

Here's the MAD creativity. "Let's not make a game where you need to win by having the most money, let's make it the first person to LOSE all their cash." BRILLIANT! It's ANTI-MONOPOLY! Yet, it sort of looks like Monopoly. Ahh, but it has art from Mad contributors. Is it art created for this game so that we have a totally new experience? Keep reading and ignore "Rule #7"

They called the cards "Card Cards".  Get it?  You travel along the board in a square but you do get two "Sorry" style bonus spaces to fill up the center of the board with more fabulous black and white artwork from "the usual gang of Ijits" Oh yeah, they fake colored the "card cards" in the black and white artwork. It is the Mad Magazine game. It's Mad, only in game form. Brilliant.

Here is another view of more art. What's that color picture of Alfred E. Neuman doing on here? I suppose Mad did have color covers and that's usually where ol' Alfred appeared. Actually, you could make this game board into a handy rain shield if it's raining. It's pretty big, this board. Look! At the top! Even a Mad Marginal comic! Sergio Aragones drew those little comics in the margins of the magazine. I think of my 100 issues I own, from #200 to #300, I may have read 5 of those mini cartoons. I loved his regular features, but no love for the teeny toons.

Clear as mud instructions. Under it, articles saved, advertisements for long gone movie theaters, retail outlets, and bubble gum card wrappers as well as Mad promo junk.  Actually, playing this with a group of stoned zombies would be kind of fun, except there is movement involved. Remember, Ignore Rule #7. Even in this game, cheating is a no-no.

That's right. The card cards made you do stuff to lose your money. "Help I'm A Rock!" (Frank Zappa was pushed.)  Ahh yes, even the cards had artwork from the magazine. Right. Very little of this game featured art created for this game. It was all reprints which more than likely, the artists got paid the standard "reprint" amount for. Sure it was somewhat of a "parody" of an actual "Fun" "Classic" game and it was nice to see some Don Martin artwork but there was little to no Al Jaffee artwork in this game and since he was my favorite artist... I'm sure this got a little bit of play when I was a kid, but mostly it was looked upon by a mindless Mad fan that wanted to show what a fan of Mad I was. It's still a nice keeper for those bits of newspaper history. Remember, this junk blog can only be played on Friday.

-Ric