Mad #17

Mad #17 (November 1954) leans into self-aware absurdity right from its cover, which forgoes cartoon chaos in favor of a bold blue-tinted cityscape dominated by the giant red MAD logo and a cheeky proclamation: "ATTENTION! This issue is going to change your whole view-point of MAD..." The spine cheekily promises "Humor in a Jugular Vein," and at a dime a copy, EC Comics was clearly feeling confident. With Harvey Kurtzman writing and Bill Elder and Bernie Krigstein on art — colored by Marie Severin and lettered by Ben Oda — this is a sharp creative team delivering one of the era's most gleefully irreverent humor comics.