Mad #268

Mad #268 (January 1987) swings into the new year with a wildly entertaining cover by Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman, depicting a Ripley-like figure armed with an FAO Schwarz toy gun facing down a towering, slime-dripping Xenomorph — while a grinning Alfred E. Neuman bursts cheerfully from the creature's chest in a splatter of red. The header promises MAD's signature takes on Aliens, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and The Karate Kid, and the cover's gags — a "Barf Bag" purse, an "Ellis Island" souvenir tag on the alien, and a bucket of SLIME at its feet — capture exactly the gleeful absurdity readers loved. With Mort Drucker and Dennis Snee among the contributors inside, this issue is a genuine snapshot of mid-'80s pop culture filtered through MAD's irreverent lens.