Mad #526

Mad Magazine goes full brick-mode for issue #526 (April 2014), with Mark Fredrickson's cover reimagining the gap-toothed, red-haired Alfred E. Neuman as a LEGO minifigure — brown pinstripe suit, red bow tie, and that signature smirk intact — bursting through a wall of scattered yellow and blue LEGO bricks while panicked minifigure heads and torsos fly in every direction. The cover cheekily promises LEGO content with the tagline "Some Assembly Required," and also teases parodies of The Hunger Games, HBO's Girls, and Spy vs. Spy inside. It's a wonderfully absurd piece of pop-culture craft from Fredrickson, who renders the whole plastic-brick world with delightful photorealistic detail.