Jeff's First... Mad Magazine

Ahhh, Mad Magazine issue #182 from April of 1976. The very first Mad Magazine I bought with my very own money. Prior to this purchase, I was kind of under the impression that MAD was too racy to buy and my parents wouldn't allow me to buy it but I took a chance and plopped down my 50 cents (cheap) anyway.

Man, oh, man... I remember howling as I read this issue. Talk about the right age, the right time, the right material, I just laughed out loud. There was a section called 'Mad Penny Pinching Hints' that seemed at the time to be the height of comedy writing. I was reading through it last night and I've clearly gotten beyond some of the humor, but at the time it was glorious.

It wasn't long afterwards that I plopped down $10 for the next 20 issues! and made my first magazine subscription purchase. Every month, this perfect piece of literature hit the mailbox and I was in heaven. I even plopped down $3.15 and bought 27 Alfred E. Neuman pictures that I still have fun with to this very day.

I could name the artist just by looking at the artwork (Mort Drucker, Sergio Aragones, Don Martin, Dave Berg, Jack Davis)... I tried to figure out the tri-fold back cover puzzle without bending the paper... I bought plastic magazine covers to preserve them for eternity...

Alas, as I went off to college, my magazine subscription money went toward National Lampoon and Rolling Stone but you never forget your first!