A reply to a reader's comment about MAD Magazine

In a comment appended to "MAD no longer", WWW 7/7/19, a reader with a long memory writes: In the old days, there was also a small booklet version of MAD magazine. Wider than it was tall. Perhaps even hard cover? I don't remember. In one of them I remember seeing a clever quiz type page that showed a scene of a girl sitting in a room and the caption was "What's wrong with this picture?". As you began to examine the picture you found that absolutely everything was wrong and nothing was correct. The girl was sitting with her head on her hand but her head was upside down. There was a window in the room and outside was a ship that was sinking, etc. I was only about 6 years old and this struck me as hilarious. An early introduction to irony.

Good news, reader! Ed. has hunted through Walt's enormous collection of MAD, National Lampoon, Playboy and other fine literature and found this.

And here's the answer page, showing that you were 100% correct!

The "puzzle" appears to be the work of Bill/Will Elder, one of the original "gang of idiots" who produced MAD 's "humor in a jugular vein" in the mid- to late fifties.

Now then, about the "small booklet version", to which you refer. Ed. found these pages in a Ballantine paperback titled Inside MAD, originally published in 1955. (The additional title - "William M. Gaines'" - was added in reprints a couple of years later, after Gaines took over MAD from the original publisher, Harvey Kurtzman.)

The book is in the standard paperback format of the time, about 4.25" wide by 7". The reason you remember it as being in horizontal format is because most of the pages were printed in landscape format, so they could chop up the comix into one line (from the magazine format) per page and still print it at a reasonably readable size.

Included in Inside MAD were three puzzle pages, a "Backword" by Stan Freberg, Mickey Rodent!, Slow Motion, Howdy Dooit!, Smilin' Melvin!, Mark Trade!, Movie Ads!, Katchandhammer Kids!, Bat Boy and Rubin!, Shermlock Shomes!, and ad parodies. Besides Bill Elder, artwork was done by Jack Davis and Wallace/Wally Wood -- terrific comic book artists, all three of them.

Now here's the really excellent news. If you'd like to have a copy, let Ed. know where to contact you. Write your e-mail address in the comment window. We won't publish it, but Walt will make you an eminently reasonable offer! And we do thank you for your interest!