Mad #235
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMad #235 (December 1982) is a compact time capsule of the magazine's early-1980s satirical engine, firing on three simultaneous pop-culture targets — Rocky III, Conan the Barbarian, and The Facts of Life — all within a single 52-page issue. The issue's physical format is itself a collector curiosity: it was deliberately printed and bound upside-down, so the back cover (a full-color Boris Vallejo swords-and-bologna painting) presents itself as the front cover, while Jack Rickard's cover — placing Alfred E. Neuman in the role of Mr. T's Clubber Lang opposite Sylvester Stallone — is technically the back. This dual-cover structure, credited to both Rickard and Vallejo, is one of only a small handful of Mad issues to formally acknowledge two cover artists for front and back. The issue also carries additional poignancy because Rickard, who had become Mad's primary cover artist after Norman Mingo's semi-retirement in 1976, died of cancer on July 22, 1983 — making this one of his final covers for the magazine he had served since 1961.
"Rockhead III" delivers a sharp, satirical take on 1980s teen TV with a quartet of distinct teenage girls navigating the quirks of life at a girl's academy, guided by a no-nonsense counselor whose blunt honesty hides a deep care. Written by Tom Koch and brought to life with bold, expressive art by Angelo Torres—both pencils and inks—this Mad issue captures the era’s pop culture obsession with a wink and a grin. Cover by Angelo Torres.
In this 1982 satire from Mad #235, a washed-up boxer confronts a new challenger who's as relentless as he is unimpressed by fame, forcing him to dig deep into the grit he left behind when the spotlight took over. Written with the magazine’s signature wit and rendered in sharp, typeset lettering, the story skewers the over-the-top drama of boxing epics with a punchy, no-nonsense edge.
In a satirical take on "Some Kind Of Hero," a Vietnam veteran who betrayed his country while in a P.O.W. camp struggles to adjust to life back home, finding the rules of civilian life as baffling as the war he survived. The story’s deadpan tone and sharp irony shine through in its typeset letters, turning everyday absurdities into a darkly comic mirror of postwar disillusionment.
In "The Lighter Side of..." from Mad #235, a satirical dive into the absurdities of everyday life, Jo navigates a whirlwind of modern dilemmas—from school stress and awkward invitations to the strange rituals of business and the chaos of college experiments—each page skewering the rules we pretend to follow. With sharp, typeset letters and deadpan humor, the story finds comedy in the tiny, ridiculous expectations that govern our routines.
In "The Yaks of Life," four wildly different teen girls navigate the trials of school life at a girl’s academy, guided by a no-nonsense counselor whose blunt honesty cuts through the drama. With a satirical wink at the popular TV series it parodies, this 1982 Mad classic delivers sharp humor and character-driven chaos in six pages of classic typeset lettering.
In this satirical riff on Conan the Barbarian, a dim-witted warrior named Conehead the Barbituate swaggers through a land of absurdity, driven by a simple mission: avenge his parents, who were killed by a sorcerer. Armed with a sword and a head that’s more cone than brain, he stumbles through perilous landscapes and ridiculous encounters, all while the story mocks the over-the-top tropes of pulp fantasy.
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By December 1982, Mad was operating under the long editorial tenure of Al Feldstein, who had edited the magazine since issue #29 in 1956, with the Usual Gang of Idiots — writers like Arnie Kogen, Larry Siegel, Dick DeBartolo, Tom Koch, and Stan Hart paired with artists Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Don Martin, Angelo Torres, Dave Berg, George Woodbridge, Bob Clarke, and Al Jaffee — running in their established groove. Jack Rickard had stepped into the role of principal cover artist after Norman Mingo semi-retired around 1976 and Mingo's death in May 1980, and his caricature style — praised internally by editor Nick Meglin for its rounded, three-dimensional command of technique — defined the look of Mad covers through the early 1980s. The upside-down binding gimmick for #235, with Vallejo's fantasy-painted back cover serving as the display face, echoed a long Mad tradition of deconstructing the physical magazine format itself, stretching back to Harvey Kurtzman's era.
Trivia · 7 facts
- The issue is printed and bound upside-down: the Boris Vallejo back cover (depicting a swordsman slicing a giant tube of bologna) faces outward as the display cover, while Jack Rickard's Alfred E. Neuman/Rocky cover is technically the back.
- Alfred E. Neuman appears on the Rickard cover in the role of Clubber Lang (Mr. T's Rocky III villain), opposite a caricature of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa.
- "Rockhead III" — a Rocky III parody scripted by Arnie Kogen with art by Jack Davis — features caricatures of Stallone, Mr. T (as Blubber Lang), Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith, Burt Young, and Terry 'Hulk Hogan' Bollea.
- "Conehead the Barbituate," scripted by Dick DeBartolo with art by Don Martin, parodies the Conan the Barbarian property; "Dumb Kind of Hero," scripted by Larry Siegel with art by Mort Drucker, targets the Richard Pryor film Some Kind of Hero.
- "The Yaks of Life," scripted by Tom Koch with art by Angelo Torres, parodies the NBC TV series The Facts of Life.
- The issue's Fold-In is by Al Jaffee, and Antonio Prohias contributes a Spy vs. Spy installment — two fixtures that appeared in nearly every Mad issue of the era.
- Jack Rickard, who drew the cover, died of cancer on July 22, 1983 — roughly seven months after this issue's publication — making it one of his last covers in a 22-year run with Mad.
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Reprinted in Mad #163 (1982), Mad #164 (1982), Mad #165 (1983), Mad #167 (1983), Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #62 (1988), Mad's Greatest Artists: Don Martin #[nn] (2014), Mad #3 (2018)
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