Mad #259
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMad #259 (December 1985) marks the first new Mad cover produced by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder in roughly three decades, making it the opening salvo of their celebrated mid-1980s return to the publication that Kurtzman had co-founded in 1952. The issue also coincides almost exactly with a pivotal editorial handoff — Al Feldstein stepping down and Nick Meglin and John Ficarra assuming the co-editorship that would steer the magazine for the next twenty years. As a cultural document, its satirical targets — Rambo II at the height of Reagan-era militarism, the sitting president himself, and the network sitcom Night Court — make it a precise snapshot of mid-1980s American popular obsessions filtered through Mad's irreverent lens. The reunion of Mad's founding visual voice with the magazine's then-contemporary staff demonstrated that the sensibility Kurtzman and Elder had built in the 1950s still carried enough charge to anchor a cover three decades later.
"Dumbo More Blood Part II" delivers another sharp, satirical dive into the absurdities of modern life, with Dave Berg’s signature wit and visual flair skewering everything from dubious investments to the quirks of dating and the promises of progress. Packed with biting commentary on technology, education, and human behavior, the story is a masterclass in observational humor, rendered with Berg’s precise, deadpan art and inked by the same hand—his own. The cover, a chaotic yet controlled collage of surreal imagery, features pencils and inks by the legendary Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman, capturing the issue’s anarchic spirit in vivid, timeless detail.
In "The Lighter Side of..." from Mad #259, a sharp, typeset satire skewers everything from modern gadgets to dating woes, poking fun at the absurdities of everyday life with a wry eye on logic, pets, and the ever-mystifying world of higher education. With no plot to resolve and no characters to follow beyond the punchlines, it’s a quick, clever riff on the quirks of the '80s mindset—delivered in Mad’s signature deadpan style.
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Between 1984 and 1989, Harvey Kurtzman reconciled with publisher William Gaines and returned to Mad alongside his longtime collaborator Will Elder, contributing covers and interior pieces after an absence of roughly thirty years. Mad #259 was the first cover the pair produced together in this reunion period, with #261 and #268 following; their joint work was signed with the initials 'WEHK' (Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman), and co-editor Nick Meglin described their division of labor as an informal arrangement the two figured out between themselves. The issue's interior was assembled by the deep bench of Mad's 'Usual Gang of Idiots,' including Mort Drucker on the Rambo II parody, Angelo Torres on Night Court, Jack Davis on a Supergirl spoof, and Al Jaffee on the Fold-In, all working under what was either Feldstein's final editorial tenure or the very first issues of the new Meglin-Ficarra co-editorship — sources place Feldstein's retirement in either 1984 or 1985.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published December 1985 by EC Publications (E.C. Publications, Inc.); 52 pages, black-and-white interior.
- Cover drawn by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder — their first new Mad cover together as part of a 1984–1989 return to the magazine; they would produce two additional covers together in this period (#261 and #268).
- The cover depicts Ronald Reagan alongside the Rambo character, placing the sitting U.S. president in direct satirical juxtaposition with the decade's dominant action-movie icon.
- Interior includes a parody of Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) with art by Mort Drucker, and a parody of TV sitcom Night Court with art by Angelo Torres.
- Also contains a Supergirl movie parody scripted by Dick DeBartolo with art by Jack Davis, a retro Gilligan's Island spoof, and a parody of Madonna's 'Material Girl.'
- Al Jaffee contributed the issue's Fold-In; Dave Berg contributed a 'Lighter Side of…' strip; Sergio Aragonés contributed his signature Marginals.
- The issue lands at Mad's editorial transition point: long-time editor Al Feldstein retired around this time, with Nick Meglin and John Ficarra stepping in as co-editors for the next two decades.
- Alfred E. Neuman appears on the contents page with a topical quip referencing President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative ('Star Wars') program, tying the mascot directly to the era's dominant political controversy.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Mad #180 (1985), Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #74 (1991), Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #75 (1991), Mad Special [Mad Super Special] #105 (1995), Mad XL #33 (2005), Mad for Decades #[nn] (2007), Mad #16 (2020), Mad #20 (2021)
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