Mad #539 (John Ficarra) - Tom Richmond Issue - June 2016

Artist Tom Richmond drew his first Mad cover for the issue as an introduction to "Mad's Stress-Inducing Adult Coloring Book" drawn by Timothy Shamey.  But, the real gem of the issue is the nine-page "Star Bores: The Snores Awaken" parody of the seventh Star Wars movie as envisioned by Disney Corporation and director J.J. Abrams.  The parody/movie review was written by David Richards and drawn to perfection by Richmond.  This one starts with a splash-page and then a double-splash giving Richmond ample room to illustrate the caricatures of the latest cast as well as the twists and turns of Harrison Ford's 73-year-old nose.  "Chicken fat" fans are in for a treat as Richmond continues the best tradition of Elder & Wood from the Abrams' pocket-protector to the Lebron James-signed basketball/robot to the graffiti on Lube Skystalker's island.  Other sight gags to be found are the wiener-roasting flame-thrower victim, Barstool's tissue box for Chewbacco, Rye's Chipotle lunch, the desert sand castle, Ham's popgun firearm & Ensure snack, Marvin the Martian, one Minion, Rye in the dentist chair, co-pilot reading Mad, and many more.  Certainly, this is not the movie that George Lucas would have made, but it is fine fodder for the Richards/Richmond team.  Although most of us have reached Trump-burnout this year, artist Hermann Mejia proved himself to be the Trumpiest with his drawings for "The Trumpalini Pages" written by Jeff Kruse.  It was also good to see the return of the "Banana Republicans" (see Mad #514) by Frank Santopadre, Evan Waite and Scott Bricher.  Can you believe that we have seven more months of this 2016 presidential campaign?  [JAM 4/19/2016]

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages and The Trumpalini Pages
Han So-Long - Star Bores: The Snore Awakens
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Man Caves
Prawn with the Wind - When Classic Films are Recast with Sea Creatures [fake department]
The Fright Stuff - Chilling Thoughts: 2016 Edition
Legends of the Follicle - A Strand-by-Strand Examination of Obama's Gray Hairs
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy
Berg's-Eye Askew - The Darker Side of ... The Lighter Side
Shading-Fraud - Mad's Stress-Inducing Adult Coloring Book
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
Store Losers - Mad's Depressingly Realistic Shopping Cart
In Blog We Trust - Planet Tad!!!!!
Esophagus Now - One Day at the Eating Championship
The Elephant in the Dressing Room - Banana Republican: 2016 Campaign Collection
Rotten to the Encore - The Mad Vault
Diva-lution - Adele: The Complete Catalogue

Fold-In - Faucet and Sink