Mad #145

Mad's September 1971 "Special Inflation Issue" delivers the gag right on the cover: Alfred E. Neuman grins contentedly while his body has ballooned into a comically enormous sphere, his red jacket and blue trousers painted across the inflated mass like a suit on a beach ball — a perfectly literal visual pun courtesy of cover artist Norman Mingo. At just 40 cents, this issue also promises Al Jaffee's "Five Easy Pages!" along with MAD's trademark deflating of films like Five Easy Pieces and The Owl and the Pussycat. It's a wonderfully absurd snapshot of early-'70s satire at its most visually inventive.