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Rating: 
Summary: Actually not much about either baseball or mattresses here
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Actually not much about either baseball or mattresses here
Review: 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.
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