Spice up your Mad covers the Bradford way!
Bradford Smith is not your average Mad Magazine collector. For quite a few years now, he's been collecting autographs of people connected to the covers of Mad Magazine. He emailed me for the first time back in August 2006 to tell me he had three or four celebrity-signed Mads he wanted me to feature on my site. I ignored him. In April 2007 he pestered me again, but he had accumulated around twenty signatures. So my wheels turned and I saw that the 15-year-old was onto something, so I gave him his own page.
So far, he has collected 424 signatures on 195 issues. They cover a wide range of humans and a couple apes (J. Fred Muggs, Cheeta). The people are mostly big-name and not-so-big-name actors, with a few inventors, Mad-related folks, and even a four-star general thrown in.
If you're not familiar with a name, a little research will be needed to make the connection, which is part of the fun. For instance, I'd never heard of Jon Rubinstein, but now see why he needed to sign Mad #463, as one of the co-inventors of Apple's iPod.
So I hope you enjoy Bradford's interesting take on Mad Magazine collecting.
--Doug
In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller: "Life moves pretty fast." Although I graduated college with honors (big deal) and am getting married in a few months, nothing has been able to hinder my quest to continually enlarge my signed MAD collection. Heck, my parents even commissioned me my own cover by the incredibly talented Tom Richmond as a graduation gift which, after discovering the bank doesn't cash artwork, is now proudly displayed on my wall.
Despite failing in my President/VP/First Lady goal of last year, I am hopeful that it will one day be a reality. Pete Rouse was pretty close though.
Currently jobless, I'm desperately seeking writing positions in film, television and even at MAD. When all things look bleak however, it's always MAD that cheers me up. Whether it's a new issue, the story shared by a celebrity fan (who knew Crispin Glover had boxes of MAD paperbacks stored at his dad's house?!) or the upcoming When We Went Mad documentary, the usual gang of idiots who inspired a young, unlicensed high schooler to start getting his MAD magazines signed continue to inspire the completely legal, but only slightly adult, 21 year old of today.
Heaps of thanks go to Doug, who still insanely takes time from his busy schedule to update my pages with new material every time I shoot him way too many emails full of photos.
~Bradford (February 2013)
Now... Onto the covers!
Here are some old pics I thought would be good.
One is of me with some of my collecton
(the Family Guy and Batman ones especially as they are my two favorites, The Office one would be third favorite).
One is me with Joanna Cassidy (of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?).
One is me with Ray Harryhausen (producer and special effects model genius, mostly mythical beasts in sci-fi movies, which explains the cyclops cover I had him sign).
One is me with Noel Neill (Lois Lane in the Superman TV shows with Kirk Alyn and later with George Reeves, and also had a cameo in the 2006 Superman Returns, which would explain the cover she signed).
I met each of them at one of those shows and had my dad take my picture with them and the MAD magazine they signed.
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to get more info on the signer (new window opens).
