Mad #349 (Nick Meglin and John Ficarra) - Tom Nozkowski Issue - September 1996

This issue was much better than #348 and all of the credit goes to Mr. Tom Nozkowski.  Madonna Ciccione, drawn by C.F. Payne, finally got the cover she deserved with Alf in the sonogram; and the great poet, Frank Jacobs wrote a special parody ("Maternity Girl") for her.  Arnie Kogen wrote an excellent parody of Twister ("Twit-sters") with double-splash-page and many other clever drawings by Paul Coker.  The Far Side flying cow was a nice touch.  Mike Snider and Rick Tulka revealed all of the truths about "More Viewer Poll Questions that the Miss America Pageant Should Be Asking."  Please take away their microphones!  In one of only two appearances in Mad, artist Glenn Barr drew eight refreshing frames for "A Mad Look at State-of-the-Art 'Advances' in Artificial Stupidity" that included the first known "Y2K" joke by Snider.  Dave Berg featured producer Nozkowski in "The Office" and gave us an image of Max Korn's father.  There seemed to be a shortage of the Sergio Aragones marginals in the issue as one of them appeared on pages 22 and again on page 36.  However, one of the best television parodies ever to appear in Mad started on page 33 as writer Dick DeBartolo skewered two laughable television shows (Hercules and Xena) into one wonderful classic Mad bit ("Jerkules & Zima") with equally humorous drawings by Angelo Torres.  Weapons included a frying pan, a Mickey Mouse head, a golf club, a croquet mallet, beer cans and Zima's "39Cs".  On this particular adventure, our heroes encountered "Jergens, Queen of Moisturizers", "Mazola, the Oily One", an enchanted pond with alligator eyes, the "Road with No Name", the "Pasture of Many Cow Pies", the "Canyon of Bad Special Effects", the "Cloud with Eyes", the "City of Denial" and, finally Baywatch.  Mr. DeBartolo: you outdid yourself on this one!  [JAM 4/8/2013]

More gore: "Little Known Facts About America's Hottest Tourist Attractions" was the vehicle for Tom Bunk's latest barrage of vomit jokes, dismembered body parts, and really bad human diseases/maladies.

Departments:
Stop the Whirl -- I Want to Get Off - Twit-sters
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Do-It-Yourselfers
AT&T&A - More Viewer Poll Questions That the Miss America Pageant Should Be Asking
Courting Disasters - Sure-Fire Signs There Won't Be a Second Date
Dumb And Bummer - A Mad Look at State-of-the-Art "Advances" in Artificial Stupidity
Berg's-Eye View - The Lighter Side
Frank on a Roll - Maternity Girl
Predict-a-Bull - Mad's Presidential Campaign Watcher's Checklist
Tales From the Duck Side - The Dopey Dungeon Debacle
Urban Jungle Gym - Games City Kids Play
Myth-Taken Identities - Jerkules & Zima
Trip-Tease - Little Known Facts About America's Hottest Tourist Attractions
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
The Odds Must Be Crazy - Mad's Gambler of the Year

Fold-In - Mad Bomber