MAD

If you are at all aware of any of the major financial transactions that occured throught the 'crazy money' days of the eighties, you will spend a lot of the time reading the book saying to yourself 'So Jeff Beck was involved in that too!' A good mix between the cut throat world of stocks 'n shares, and one man's personal dreams and fears Definitely worth reading. If anyone wants a copy I may part with mine, but it took me a very long time to find it, so only worthwhile offers please

This is one book you can read to your kids .As a parent Iam sure all the small kids will enjoy it.If they dont enjoy it give it to me & i will return your money with a addititon $ 11. BYE

This would not be my best choice of mad libs simply because many of the stories are quite similar, about movie stars or something. The categories are't even that fun anyway. I hardly got a laugh out of mine or anyone else's words. Go buy some of its more popular titles.

I love the work of Sergio Aragones. I've enjoyed his work since I was a child.

It sure is strange to see the art of Sergio Aragonés blown up to one panel per page given that he is the "MAD" Magazine artist who does the little cartoons buried in the borders fondly known as "Marginal Thinking." To help readers along in getting through "Sergio Aragonés' Next MAD Book," the numerical sequence of each page in a particular bit provided in a little circled number at the top. Otherwise you would have some trouble in figuring out what is the set-up and what is the punch line in this collection, the sixteenth and I believe final such collection.

A native of Castellon, Spain whose family moved to Mexico during the Spanish Civil War, Sergio Aragonés has the well-deserved reputation of being known as the fastest cartoonist in the world. He game to New York City and did his first bits for "MAD" Magazine, beginning with "A Mad Look at the U.S. Space Effort" in the January 1963 issue. Then when he was in the 1980s Aragonés and writer Mark Evanier (to whom this collection is dedicated) created "Groo the Wanderer," the best pastiche to date of the sword & sorcery genre and a success story as a creator-owned comic book.

All of these bits are done without dialogue, with thought balloons in place of the traditional word balloons. The humor consists mostly of gentle gibes and simple ironies, such as the man who climbs all the way to the top of a mountain to talk to a wise man only to discover he is one mountain over. Aragonés is also a master of the cut, where the point of view suddenly changes to deliver the punch line. Of course, since this is Sergio Aragonés that means the back of this paperback includes a shameless plus for his other 15 books, form "Viva MAD" to "Totally MAD." The only downside to this sub-series of "MAD" collections is that you can get through this entire book in just a few minutes, a subtle reminder perhaps that the humor of the master of "Marginal Thinking" should be taken in small doses.

If you like tales of time travel and thought-provoking little twists, this is the book to read. Need a short break from reality during a stressful day? This one is great since it is a collection of short stories each of which you can easily read when you have a few minutes to spare.

My son is barely 2 years old and can actually sit through a whole CottonTale book. He constantly brings them to me, asking for "Bunny, Mama, Bunny!" The pages are sturdy cardboard, and there are only about 10 pages per book, with only a couple of sentences per page. The drawings are colorful, and the lessons are great. In So, Mad Bunny, Little Bunny learns about keeping his temper. Which is a great lesson for the 2-year-old crowd!

Each book ends with a simple verse from the Everyday Bible: In So, Mad Bunny it is James 1:20 "Anger will not help you live a good life as God wants." It is a gentle reminder to me, as well, when I read to my son: Anger doesn't help my son, and it doesn't help me, either. A good lesson for the parent-of-2-year-old crowd!

I was going to say that this is certainly the right time of year to review "The Spring Training MAD," but then I realized that since we got that weird bed with the air pumps I do not sleep on springs anymore, which makes the whole thing moot. But then as the back of this paperback, the 92nd put out by the Usual Gang of Idiot, makes a point of telling us that the crack of the bat, hot rookie prospects, and the smell of freshly-mowed Astroturf were all things that you will not find in this collection. Ironically, my favorite bit in this collection are the "Horrifying Sports Cliches," drawn by Paul Coker and written by Frank Jacobs that included my favorite "Stretching a SINGLE" as well as "Sinking a PUTT," "Icing a PUCK," and "Covering a WIDE RECEIVER." Just think about what sort of sick drawing would accompany such titles and you get the idea of the possibilities here.

Enough of that, because what you really want to know is what parodies provide the meat and potatoes of "The Spring Training MAD." The collection starts with artist Mort Drucker and writer Larry Siegel dealing with the television series "Family Tides," but also includes Siskel and Ebert clones reviewing "Ghost-Dusters," Purple Acid Rain," and "The Karocky Kid." The grand finale is "Witless," by artist Angelo Torres and writer Stan Hart, which does not do as much with Harrison Ford's "Witness" as I would have expected. The humor on this one just kept misfiring for me.

You will find a double-dose of Dave Berg's "Lighter Side" potpourri, a Spy vs. Spy adventure, "If Advertisers Made Use of Old Maters," and Al Jaffee's look at "Truly Logical Transformers" (e.g., a car that turns into a lemon, a television that turns into a toilet). There is also "MAD's Aptitude Test Number Seven: Will You Make a Good Rock Star?" and Jack Davis does the art for Dick De Bartolo's "A Frequent Flyer Bonus Program We'd Like to See." Nothing in here really constitutes a classic example of "MAD" humor, but this is still a diverting collection of witless humor and slightly cruel barbs. But then, this is "The Spring Training MAD," so it is not like the starters were playing all nine innings.

This book is a very good background to Francis Crick's life. He led a very interesting life and he does a hell of a job describing it. Sometimes this book gets to wordy, but it is still a well written, thorough book.

So check it, this book was off the shizzy. I was like bizzling in my tizzle when i rizzead this novizzle. I would like to shout out to jo. You my girl,girl. Jew for life