SUNDAY FUNNIES - Is Mandrake MAD?

The cover of this MAD #14 shows Monalisa holding a copy of MAD. It is surprising how many people were offended, thinking it was a portrait of the Virgin Mary with a doctored up painting replacing Baby Jesus with a copy of MAD.




And I wouldn’t doubt if some people were offended by the second page, the inside cover, which is an advertisement for a MAD subscription either.
Remember Mandrake the Magician in the comic strips years ago? I do. As you read/look at this lampoon on Mandrake please take time to look at some of the infinite detailed art by Will Elder…. Or background humor that has little to do with the mainstream story.

Such as in one panel when Mandrake is selling his snakeoil to a crowd if you look close enough you see a man pick- pocking the man in front of him. In the next panel the man in front falls and the pick- pocketer is shown holding a prosthesis leg.

The writer of the Mandrake lampoon, editor Harvey Kurtzman, had a lot of wiggle room to write a good story using Mandrake’s old standby: And that is Mandrake gestures hypnotically. It means he could hypnotize people without their knowledge and change their perception of what reality they see or think they see.

Do you think some Republicans might gesture their constituents hypnotically in thinking Democrats are evil ad should be treated as second class citizens?