Sergio Aragonés: A California Gold Centennial First Day Cover

Mad magazine's Marginal Thinking Department cartoonist Sergio Aragonés has renewed my faith in the art of the signed first day cover. A cacheted cover of the California Gold Centennial commemorative issue of 1948—you'd think they could have waited a year—was signed and drawn upon by him in 1991, presumably at a convention. He has drawn the magazine's ageless mascot Alfred E. Neuman in a manner fitting to both the stamp and the character in the "What Me Worry?" shirt.

Sergio Aragonés
eBay listing accessed March 11, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/374360425463?

Sergio Aragonés
eBay item description

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Sergio Aragonés: A George M. Cohan First Day Cover

I have frequently expressed my perplexity at the phenomenon of first day covers signed by celebrities, particularly when the stamp and the signer have nothing to do with each other. Every now and then, though, something comes along that makes my day and it's usually because of the creativity of a cartoonist.

In 1990, when Mad's Sergio Aragonés was in all likelihood, attending a convention, he was asked, it would seem, to sign the 1978 first day cover commemorating the George M. Cohan centennial. He knew what to do with it.

Sergio Aragonés
eBay listing accessed March 10, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275712042532?hash=item4031b7e624%3Ag%3An3oAAOSwxa1j-ryI&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338181027&customid=&toolid=10049

Sergio Aragonés
eBay item description

04254

Mad Souvenirs

Nowadays I don't spend all that much time thinking about Mad Magazine, but it was a staple of my life between the ages of 9 and 16 or so. Here is a collection of three souvenir drawings by Sergio Aragonés, Don Martin, and Don Piraro. They were recently sold on eBay for what today seems a reasonable price.

Alfred E. Neuman (1996, bottom), Sergio Aragonés

I admire how Aragones dealt with the obtrusive presence of the postmark.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270903480005&nma=true&rt=nc&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_500wt_1413

Best Wishes, Don Martin

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270903480005&nma=true&rt=nc&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_500wt_1413 

Bizarro (1998), Dan Piraro

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270903480005&nma=true&rt=nc&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_500wt_1413

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270903480005&nma=true&rt=nc&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_500wt_1413

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=270903480005&nma=true&rt=nc&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_500wt_1413

Note:  My last mention of Mad Magazine was in the "Big Barcodes" post here.

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