Mad #14

Few comic covers can claim a Renaissance master in their credits, yet here we are — Mad #14 (1954) cheekily lists Leonardo da Vinci as the cover's penciler and inker, presenting a sepia-toned rendering of the Mona Lisa herself, serene smile and all, casually holding a copy of Mad magazine in her folded hands. The self-referential gag is pure EC mischief: the world's most famous painting repurposed as a reader of "Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad," with that familiar yellow logo blazing above her timeless gaze. At a dime a copy, this issue delivers the irreverent wit that made Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Marie Severin, and Ben Oda such a formidable creative team inside the pages.