Mad #19

This wonderfully offbeat issue from 1955 presents one of EC's most audacious cover conceits: rather than a splashy illustrated scene, the entire front page is designed to look like a racing form newspaper, complete with Jamaica and Laurel race results, odds, and graded selections — all deadpan parody of the most mundane print imaginable. The cheeky header promises "Another Entertaining as Well as Educational Cover Design. Humor in a Jugular Vein. Tales Calculated to Drive You…" while the masthead quietly reveals this is still very much Mad, hiding its identity in plain sight. For a dime, Harvey Kurtzman's editorial vision and the combined talents of Jack Davis, Marie Severin, and Ben Oda deliver an issue whose cover alone is a sly joke about what a comic book cover even needs to be.