Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site:
A resource for collectors and fans of the
world's most important (ecch!) humor publication.

All covers are copyrighted by E.C. Publications.
This site is not affiliated with Mad Magazine or E.C. Publications.
Site text and layout copyright 1997-2008 Doug Gilford.
E-mail: madcoversite@yahoo.com
Mad Magazine and E.C. Publications legal department have not granted
permission to Doug Gilford, but wouldn't it be nice if they did?
OK. With that out of the way, what can I tell you about this site?

Quick Site Facts:
  • This is a fan based site made by a fan for fans of Mad Magazine.
  • This a non-profit site. I pay to keep the thing running.
  • This site has scanned images of all the regular issue Mad comic and magazine covers staring with #1 from 1952 to the current day at over 485 issues. This can be interpretted as a violation of copyright laws. If I was making a profit off the depiction of these images, I would consider it a violation.
  • I own all the regular issue magazines and their associated covers scanned into the site. I don't own all the specials, paperbacks, and mad collectibles. You'll have to visit my friend Dick Hanchette's site for that. Go to the links section.
  • I am sharing my images so collectors will have an easier time identifying which issues they need to complete their collections. A side benefit for collectors who already have the issues is that viewing covers in this manner helps to preserve their precious originals. An unexpected number of artists and writers who work for Mad frequent the site for research purposes (or so they tell me). I also get research questions from Hollywood trivia game show writers verifying Mad-related questions they plan to ask contestants. Funny how they all assume I'm some kind of authority...
  • I am also sharing my images to entertain and inform the non-collecting public.
  • I consider this a public site, so please e-mail me with any observations or recommendations or questions. Your involvement keeps me motivated!

Frequently Asked Questions:
  • Do you sell issues? No, go to the Sellers section.
  • Do you buy issues? No, go to the Buyers section.
  • What's the value of such and such paperback? Since a price guide doesn't exist for paperbacks, I don't know. You could place a free sellers ad on my site and see what kind of response you get.
  • Why don't you show more than just covers? From time to time, I reprint things other than covers for the purpose of illustrating a point or answering a question, but I consider just showing the covers to be stretching the limits of copyright law.
  • Do you know where I can find such and such article or picture? It doesn't hurt to ask me, but remember, I don't have issues for sale.
  • Why are you giving Mad all this free publicity? I'm not running this site for Mad. I'm running it because I have a collection of Mads, some very basic internet skills, some time to kill, and something wrong with me.
Your idiot webmaster...

A few (very few) people have asked for information about the author of this site.

Like a lot of what's on the internet, please be aware that the following information is probably questionable in its authenticity, accuracy, and reason for being presented. Never enter into these sites blindly. Always question the motivation of the author!

Quick Author Facts:
  • Name: Douglas James Gilford
  • Birth Date: June 5th, 1965 --- MAD had already been around 13 years before I was born!
  • Birth Place: Portland, Oregon, USA --- A nice little rainy town...
  • Birth Weight: 8 pounds, 6 ounces
  • Birth Length: 22.5 inches
  • Current Height: 6'3" and growing everyday
  • Current Sex: Male
  • Color: Caucasian --- I was called an albino by mean kids in school.
  • Current Weight: around 205 pounds, thinner looking due to the height, with slight spread developing in the stomach area
  • Marital Status: Married without children --- plenty of time to read MAD
  • Hobbies: basketball, movies, computers, books, weird rock music to drive the wife nuts, canning peaches
  • Greatest Physical Challenge: attaining the summit of Oregon's Mt. Hood (11,239 feet) with my brother
  • Education: Bachelors degree Media and Theatre Arts from Montana State University in Bozeman
  • Occupation: Co-owner/Manager Gilford's Floorcovering, Inc.
  • Claim to fame: worked with director Alan Parker on Come See The Paradise as a camera assistant /
    some of Alan Parker's other films were Mississippi Burning, Pink Floyd's The Wall, AngelHeart, Midnight Express...
  • Goals: making some sense out of the world and finding Alfred's tooth
Mad #155 -- the issue that started it all

Quick Story About the Author:

 This is going to be pretty vague because I can't remember for sure, but I think I was first introduced to Mad in the mid-'70s by my babysitter when she brought along a copy of issue #155 from 1972. I remember at the time wondering what a Godfather was. That was a classic issue to get introduced to because it had all the great Mad elements like Dave Berg's Lighter Side, Don Martin, Sergio Aragones, great movie and TV satires. It was a wonderful time for Mad in general because they had Nixon to pick on. The country was still wrapped in politics trying to get out from beneath an unpopular war. People were angry and distrustful of the government. Mad was right there to help keep things stirred up.

Of course as a kid, barely eight or nine-years old, I didn't have much of a concept about what was going on in the country. I just saw the babysitter's funny magazine sitting there with that neat fold-in thing in the back and that weird kid with a missing tooth. What was that all about?

As I got into my teens I noticed I had accumulated quite a few Mads over the years but had never concluded at the time that I was a collector. Then for no particular reason I just woke up one day and told myself I had to have every regular issue. I was too young to drive, so I took busses to all the Portland used book stores I could find and dug through stacks and stacks of issues that were pretty affordable for a kid. I didn't get into the heavy-duty purchases until my 20's when I'd go to comic book conventions that would hit town once or twice a year.

Pretty soon I had them all, but to this day I could never explain the reason for the drive to own them all. Maybe I needed a measure of control in my life (collectors definetly are the masters of whatever they collect). Maybe I was out to impress others (fat chance). Most people who know I have the whole collection usually look at me with wide eyes and say, "that's very nice Doug." Then they grab their kids and run away. Maybe I actually liked the magazine that much.

Whatever the reason, it's been a fun thing to collect. With the explosion of the internet I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of people with this connecting interest from all walks of life all over the world. I never would have thought it possible when I was paging through my first Spy vs. Spy.

Doug


In 2007, this interview expanded on some of the above.