My first contact with MAD magazine was the movie spoofs. As a fan of Star Wars, my first purchased issue was German MAD #177 with the “Return of the Jedi“ cover. However, I actually start collecting with German MAD #186, the “Magnum p.i.“ issue. That was in the year 1984. One year later I started to collect the American MAD as well. I had discovered them at the Station Kiosk in my home town.
In the 1980’s I’ve contacted the German editor Herbert Feuerstein, by sending him letters with questions about my favorite comic. At this time, I didn’t think about becoming a collector of MAD memorabilia and original artwork, yet. I just bought the paperbacks and specials from the German edition. The only way to get US paperbacks were the airport newspaper stands, where I was lucky to get some from time to time. However, it took years and decades to complete my collection.
After I got my first computer with internet access, I could finally complete my collection. The best of all, I was able to contact some UGOI’s via e-mail very easily. The first contacted artist was Tom Bunk. The contact to him established pretty fast, because Tom is, like me, a native German speaker . More artists followed and my dream came true, getting amazing autographs by sending out my books around the world. The longest distance to contact an artist was Thailand. His name is Apichai Bhakdibutr and he worked for the German MAD in the 1980s. Also had other nice contacts with Albert B. Feldstein, Paul Coker, Frank Jacobs, Tom Richmond, Mort Drucker, Angelo Torres or Dick DeBartolo. A few of many nice and great artists and writers! Unfortunately, I never got the chance to meet one of the MAD men personally!
The main part of my collection are the paperbacks, books and magazines from the USA. And of course original artwork, especially done for paperbacks!
