Adolph S. Ochs was the publisher of The New York Times from 1896 to 1935, a career which earned him a U.S. commemorative stamp issue in 1976. Mad magazine cartoonist Sergio Aragonés, asked to embellish a first day cover, showed that he too knows a bit about publishers.
 |
| Sergio Aragonés eBay listing accessed March 12, 2023 |
 |
| Sergio Aragonés eBay item description |
04256
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 |
 |
| Sergio Aragonés eBay item description |
04255
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 |
 |
| Sergio Aragonés eBay item description |
04254
Anyone who didn't make it to the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con may have missed the program's cover art. It shows a gate-crashing Comic-Con crowd scene by Sergio Aragonés of Mad magazine fame. Individual attendees are shown wearing logos for Mad and Superman, but there is no cosplay to speak of. Aragonés has depicted himself in the frenzy. Can you find him? (Solution below.)
 |
| Sergio Aragonés The San Diego Comic-Con 1976 Program AbeBooks listing accessed circa June 2022 |
Note: ˙ǝɥɔɐʇsnɯ ɹɐqǝlpuɐɥ ɐ sɐɥ ǝH ˙ʇɹᴉɥs pɐW ǝɥʇ uᴉ ǝɹnƃᴉɟ ǝɥʇ puᴉɥǝq sʍoɹ oʍʇ punoɟ ǝq ʎɐɯ oᴉƃɹǝS
04014
If one were fortunate enough to obtain an original "layout for a published project" (so we are told) illustrated by Mad's Antonio Prohias of an agitated White Spy sitting in a movie theater, should one have other artists and luminaries of the magazine also sign—and draw on—the page? Perhaps not, but it's hard to argue that a "jam page" fitting this description didn't turn out extremely well. Sergio Aragonés put his contribution (including a sketch of Alfred E. Neuman) on the projected screen. Kelly Freas, Marie Severin, and Peter Kuper added other faces: respectively, of Freas himself, of William M. Gaines, and of one of the spies. That's quite a coup: having spies drawn by both Prohias and Kuper, his successor, on the same page. As a bonus, there are signatures by Jack Davis, Will Elder, Mort Drucker, Kyle Baker, Al Feldstein, Angelo Torres, Annie M. Gaines, Al Jaffee, and Paul Peter Porges. Is it any wonder the eBay seller is asking $1,600 for this? 
 |
| The usual gang of idiots eBay listing accessed July 1, 2022 |
 |
| The usual gang of idiots eBay item description |
Note: I'd love to hear from anyone who can identify the published source of this Spy vs. Spy layout drawing.
04004
Frank Modell's cartoon for The New Yorker of November 25, 1950 was a good one, strong enough to be included a quarter century later in The New Yorker Album of Drawings 1925-1975. It can therefore be said to have been somewhat on the radar in the mid-to-late 1970s.
 |
| Frank Modell The New Yorker, November 25, 1950, page 45 |
 |
| Don Martin Original art Mad #196, January 1978, page 25 |
 |
| Don Martin Full page original art Mad #196, January 1978, page 25 |
 |
| Don Martin Swann Galleries Sale 2608, Lot 191, June 9, 2022 |
 |
| Spot drawing by Thomas Eastwood and cartoon by Frank Modell |
 |
| Art by Dave—Ahem! David—Berg and Don Martin with marginalia by Sergio Aragonés |
 |
| Thomas Eastwood |
Note: Who then is the funnier president, Abe Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt?
04002
A 1977 sketch dedicated to one Chuck from Mad's Sergio Aragonés is being offered by Burnside Rare Books of Portland for $350.
 |
| Sergio Aragones AbeBooks listing accessed February 19, 2022 |
03904
 |
| A Golden Trashery of MAD New York: Crown, 1960 Cover by Norman Mingo |
 |
| Twelve signatures, eight sketches |
 |
| George Woodbridge |
 |
| Jack Rickard takes the real estate under the dust jacket flap and makes the most elaborate drawing. |
 |
| Inscribed "Free Sample! Bill Gaines" |
 |
| Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Al Feldstein |
 |
| Lou Silverstone, Dick DeBartolo, Paul Peter Porges |
 |
| Sergio Aragonés |
 |
| Bob Clarke, Nick Meglin |
 |
| Introduction by Sid Caesar |
 |
| A Golden Trashery of MAD eBay Listing Retrieved October 16, 2018 |
 |
| A Golden Trashery of MAD AbeBooks Listing Retrieved October 16, 2018 |
