Mad #18

Mad #18 from EC Comics is a genuinely clever piece of 1954 humor, with Harvey Kurtzman's cover turning the whole enterprise over to the reader — a bright yellow field populated by a startled woman and a ghostly figure rendered entirely as connect-the-dots puzzles, daring you to finish what's barely there. The bold red "MAD" logo looms above while the cover copy cheekily announces, "Look gang! Another surprise! In this issue… YOU draw the cover!" Inside, Bill Elder brings the wit to a Mad-style take on "Alice in Wonderland," with Harvey Kurtzman writing and Ben Oda lettering the whole affair. At a dime a copy, this issue captures EC's gleeful willingness to make the audience part of the joke.