After having a piece in every MAD Magazine for the past 450+ issues (and still counting), I have a lot of MAD stuff!
When I wrote a new MAD paperback or had something published I really liked, I would call the distribution warehouse where MAD books and magazines were stored and buy a case or two. The plan was to store it in a warehouse until it was worth a ton of money. Then I would put it on sale and start raking in the cash! As you may have heard or read elsewhere, storing all this crap in a warehouse turned out to be quite stupid. Almost 30 years of storage right in the heart of high rent New York City, just two blocks from Gizneyland cost about $85,000 so far! I’ll never make it back, but –oh well, that’s water under the bridge. (So much better for me to think of it that way, than the more realistic “cash down the drain!”)
I hope you find something you like to buy for yourself, or as a gift to someone you don’t particularly care about. Anything you spend goes toward keeping Dick’s Gadget Warehouse alive. (Or least the part I rent.) Most everything that can be autographed is personally autographed to you, or whomever you want. Right now this page is set up so you have to order each MAD “gem/trash” separately. Since you pay postage per item, I try to add a “surprise” to each multi-order to cover any extra money you may have paid. Thanks for stopping by.
MADly, Dick De
Dick DeBartolo, MAD’s Maddest Writer.
I often have MAD stuff on eBay here: http://myworld.ebay.com/madsmaddest/
Collector’s Item! It’s Rare, But It Was Well Done. MAD’s Final All New Issue. (#10, Dec. 2019)
But 1st, a bit of MAD history: 
MAD began in 1952 with MAD #1, their October–November issue. Sadly MAD ended all-new material issues with this #10 November-December 2019 issue. That’s 67 years of publishing, the majority of those years without advertising. 550 issues were done by the NY staff, 10 by the LA staff. (In December 2017 MAD moved to Burbank, and the new LA staff started their numbering issues with #1 again.) Also with this issue #10, MAD is no longer available at newsstands, bookstores, etc. It is only available via subscription or at a comic book store. And available right here too. I bought 24 copies online figuring it would be hard to find once people realized MAD wasn’t on newsstands anymore and this would be the final issue will all-new material. So this issue wasn’t easy to find, but now it is — assuming you’re reading this. I did a web search to come up with a price and I found three places selling it. Prices are in $50 range & often higher and they weren’t autographed by MAD’s Maddest Writer. (Yes, that might lower the value, unless you’re a DickDe fan.) I decided on a lower amount, $29.99. I’ll autograph to you, or whomever you want. It’s signed, put in a plastic sleeve and then mailed in a heavy duty white cardboard envelope with USPS tracking. That’s $4.99. And PayPal will automatically add sales taxes in some places.
2022 HOLIDAY BONUS: Order between now & December 20th, 2022 & I will include an autographed Alfred E. Neuman photo, the same one that sells on my website for $13.98! Yours as a bonus. (It will be sent with your magazine, no coupon needed!)
A Piece Of History Can Be Yours! (Yeah, it’s a piece of paper, but it’s still history!!
A Copy Of The Famous Alfred E. Neuman Picture Sold 40+ Years Ago in MAD Can Be Yours!
About the Alfred E. Neuman picture:
The Alfred E. Neuman “suitable for framing” pictures were sold in MAD Magazine for many years by publisher William M. Gaines. (They were also advertised as being useful for wrapping fish.)
They haven’t been sold by MAD for more than 40+ years. And no new ones were printed in the past 30+ years. And finally, I know of no plans to print them again.
So they’re a true MAD “collector’s item”. Perhaps a ‘garbage collector’ item, but still prized by MAD magazine fans! If you purchase one ‘ll autograph to you, to whomever you want, or send it just signed with my name. Autographing it to a first name is best because there’s not a lot of space on the photo for the autographs.
These are from my own collection stored all these years in Dick’s Gadget Warehouse, at more than $400 a month. Back in the days I was working as “creative consultant” for MAD I bought case of them from William M. Gaines himself. He doesn’t charge me shipping because he handed me the case of photos in the stockroom, right there at the world famous address: 485 MADison Avenue! NYC.
The photo is 7″ X 10″. Enjoy it. Frame it. Display it. Perhaps even Regret It – (but all sales are final!) The autographed Alfred E. photo is $10. (Buy 2, save $5. 2 for $15. If you order 2, put the first name for the autograph, then a dash – & the other name for 2nd picture autograph.) Your photo(s) will be sent in a rugged cardboard shipping envelope with a sheet explaining its history. Postage is $4.99 for First Class mail with a tracking number. PayPal may add sales tax depending on where you live. It’s now the law. And U.S. orders only.
What a treat to find my work mentioned in the July 17, 2019 Hollywood Reporter!
Here’s part of the story:
‘Veep’ Boss David Mandel Pays Tribute to Mad Magazine: “A Club With Its Own Secret Code Words” (Guest Column)
Following news that the publication is folding after 67 years, the HBO comedy’s Emmy-nominated showrunner recalls its iconic film parodies — and its hold on a young writer-to-be. I have never seen The Towering Inferno. But I know the whole movie. Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, O.J. Simpson and the cat. Produced by Irwin Allen. It seems like a fine movie. But I don’t ever need to see it because I read Mad magazine’s “The Towering Sterno.” In just a couple of pages, I knew everything I needed to know about infernos and towers thanks to writer Dick DeBartolo and artist Mort Drucker. —-
David also mentions the “Poopsidedown Adventure” and both those movie satires, plus two of my Star Bleech movie satires are in this trade paperback book exactly as they appeared in MAD.
They appear in my MAD Trade Paperback called HERE’S MAD IN YOUR EYE. I got to choose from my favorite articles from all the past issues of MAD up until the time the book was published in 1984. (BTW, a Trade Paperback Book is a large format paperback book, roughly 8.5 X 11″.
Among my favorite things that I picked for HERE’S MAD IN YOUR EYE are:
Movie satires: JAW’D Too! / STAR BLEECH
THE TOWERING STERNO
THE POOPSIDEDOWN AVENTURE
TV Satires: STAR BLEECH (The TV Show) / LUST BOAT
GENTEEL BEN (One of few TV satires Don Martin ever illustrated!)
Magazine Satires: Modern Muscle Magazine / Photo-Monotony Magazine
Condemner Reports / Outdoors Magazine
Lots of Ads:
The Cost-A-Mint Society presents: FLAGS OF UNKNOWN NATIONS
And CIGARETTE TAX STAMPS OF THE FIFTY STATES!!!
PLUS: The Kentucky Fried Chicken Pledge Employees Can Really Live Up To!
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And there are lots of other fun articles in this I60 page epic!!
Including The MAD Reader’s Survey.
A take-off on Sesame Street called Reality Street so kids don’t grow thinking life is all fun!
And feature by feature advertising where you’ll read about a ballpoint pen so powerful it can write a check for $1 million or more. It even writes in foreign languages!
Printed In blazing full Black & White!
And some yellow from sitting in Dick’s Gadget Warehouse for more than 25 years!
These are brand new uncirculated copies. They’re also unsold copies, especially if you don’t buy one. Or more!
Read the “stunning” reviews on the back cover! Yes, this book even has a back cover, included at NO EXTRA charge!
NO WEEKS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER LIST!
On Ebay Here’s MAD in Your Eye, in good condition is being offered for $25.00. And it’s not autographed by me! I’m offering brand new (but ‘warehouse’ yellowed) copies for $19.99, plus $3.99 for First Class postage which now is way more that, but I’ll pay the difference. It can be autographed to you, another name, or autographed with just my name. Unfortunately, US sales only. Postage to Canada has gotten ridiculous. Here’s your chance to be really sorry you bought something on eBay!
GOOD DAYS AND MAD! – A book so amazing – someone actually printed some copies!
9/9/2022 — Whoa! SOLD OUT! (All 1200 copies gone.) Email if you wish to be notified if I find any additional copies. gizwizbiz@gmail.com
William M. Gaines, the founder and publisher of MAD Magazine, passed away on June 3rd, 1992, more than 25 years ago! To get this memory of William M. Gaines into more hands (and out my very expensive Manhattan warehouse) here’s a special offer. If you buy a copy of GOOD DAYS & MAD, you’ll also receive a 35+ year-old Alfred E. Neuman photo as a thank you gift.
If you like the stories of the mad way William M. Gaines ran the very successful MAD Magazine that I tell on The Giz Wiz, then you should really enjoy GOOD DAYS AND MAD. It’s a biographical look at the 30 some odd years I spent working for Gaines and for MAD. All the strange stories are in there – like the time Gaines took the entire staff to a subscriber’s house in Haiti to beg him to renew!
Gaines and I also became fast friends and I get to relate of some incredible things we did together. Like the time Gaines, knowing I love trains, rented a 1890’s observation car and took 12 of us on a trip from NYC to Boston in total luxury. Gaines loved food and also had three chefs aboard! He arranged to have this private car hooked up to the Amtrak Metroliner! We went to Boston, spent 5 hours there sightseeing, and then the car was hooked up to another Metroliner for the trip back to NY’s Penn Station. Then there was the time I arranged to get Gaines onto the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It was an incredible adventure until Bill almost got stuck trying to push through the elbow of Miss Liberty!
The book is no longer in print, but I did squirrel away some copies in the warehouse. Each copy of GOOD DAYS AND MAD sold helps pay off the rent on Dick’s Gadget Warehouse which is now a shocking $425.00 a month!
Photos from Good Days & MAD / (Top right) Dick De resting in his private ‘think tank’ in his office. Gaines spared no expense to make me comfortable at MAD. Truth is, he let have a operating model railroad in my office!
(Top left) John Ficarra, Editor of MAD, Dick De, and Morley Safer record a spot that appeared on 60 Minutes. I think it was in the late 1980’s. Under the video section of this website you can follow a link to see it.
(Bottom left) Dennis Wunderlin, Annie Gaines, Bill (William M.) Gaines , Dick De, and Carol Stuart on the observation platform of the private railroad car Gaines rented so he could take a few friends from New York to Boston and back! He had three chefs aboard! We had a champagne brunch on the way to Boston, and a full sit-down dinner on the return!
(Bottom right) Bill’s office wall. Look carefully. Among all the photos of Bill is an oil painting The Usual Gang of Idiots gave Gaines for Christmas one year. Yes, it’s an oil painting of the back of his head! Come on, if we took a picture of him from the front, he might have suspected something!
It’s 1980 and disco isn’t dead yet. But MAD Magazine put the first nail in its coffin with this one-of-a-kind
MAD DISCO Special Edition. (All the best copies are gone, but copies with minor dings and a lot of yellowing are still available. And all of them have the record bound in them. Hey, they’re almost 40 years old. Published in 1980!)
It’s unique in many respects. It’s the only issue of MAD without a number or cover date. It’s the only issue of MAD devoted to a single subject to contain it’s own 33 1/3 floppy record. It’s the only 32 page MAD. And it’s the only issue of MAD to ever have: “MAD DISCO is an idea conceived by Dick DeBartolo” on the contents page. Here’s the back-story: I loved disco. Heck, I loved it so much I built a disco right inside my 50 foot houseboat complete with “infinity floor’, fog and bubble machines. And talk about a tough “door policy”. The only way to get into Disco Dick’s was to know it existed!
Meanwhile at MAD I wrote a lot of disco satires, which just kept piling up on the editor’s desk. Finally I told MAD Publisher Bill Gaines that if we didn’t do something with them soon, disco would be on its way out. So we could use all the material at one time, Gaines asked if I could get some of the other Usual Gang of Idiots to contribute enough to make MAD’s first (and only) Special Edition. I said I could, and I did! So MAD Disco was born. Features include: MAD’S Disco Owner of the Year / A MAD History of Dancing /MAD’S DISCO Mother Goose Rhymes /SLIPPED DISCO – The complete Disco Magazine /Don Martin’s Guide to Disco Sounds / “SIX MINUTES” Looks at Disco.
A 30 minute 33 1/3 RPM Record “MAD DISCO” is bound inside. A sample of one of the song is above. (It’s a floppy vinyl record – emphasis on FLOP.) Songs include: “DISCO SUICIDE” / “SORRY, NO WORDS” / “THIS TIME, THIS NIGHT” / “BARELY ALIVE” / “THE DISCO CLAP” / And a Disco Version of the World Famous MAD Song: “IT’S A GAS” – Lyrics by Dick DeBartolo, Music By Norm Blagman PLUS: Music & Lyrics for all the songs (except It’s A Gas) are also in this issue! Now how much you would pay for this? (Don’t answer, I can’t hear you.) On Ebay it was listed at $39.95. (I don’t know if he got that price, but it is gone.)
I’m selling my copies for half that: $19.99. And mine are autographed! They have been sitting in Dick’s Gadget Warehouse for almost 40 years, so they do have “warehouse” yellow on each page to prove their heritage. Although there may have a mark here or there on the covers from storage, all have the floppy vinyl record in place just the way it came from the bindery. Most copies you’ll find on sale have the record removed and played, or even missing. The record in each one of these issues is pristine. Each copy is sent first class in a protective plastic sleeve. First class postage adds $3.99, but it’s the only First Class thing about this great offer! Unfortunately, this offer is for the US only..
I’ll update your order to Priority Mail, which as of 8/12/2019 is $6.95. I’ll pay the difference.
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Known as MAD’s Maddest Writer, co-host of The Giz Wiz with OMGchad at www.GizWiz.TV, The Giz Wiz on ABC’s World News Now, and on Tech Guy Labs with Leo Laporte on www.TWiT.TV.
