Mad #428

The April 2003 issue of MAD sets its sights squarely on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, promising to "piss off" the film in classic MAD fashion with the parody "Bored of the Rings: The Two+ Hours." Dale Stephanos's cover art delivers a wonderfully grotesque trio — wide-eyed Frodo, a deadpan Pippin, and a crouching, leering Gollum on a chain — all dwarfed by a towering, scowling Treebeard looming against a cloudy sky. Rounding things out, the cover also teases 54 Academy Award put-downs and 10 Daredevil outtakes, making this a genuinely packed issue for fans of sharp pop-culture satire.