Main Library
Resource Guide
Nightclubs
Personals
Photos
Pictorials
Chat
Hot Links
Basic Resources
Events

Help &
Reaching Us


Mad about Crossdressing!

By Brittany Rose


Artwork is linked to much larger graphics. Be prepared for files 100-200k in size!

A lmost everyone is familiar with Mad Magazine. But many people don't know that it started as a comic book. Originally, it was a part of EC Comics, renowned for horror and science fiction comics, as well as humor. The big purge of adult-oriented comics in the early fifties, (due to the belief that they were corrupting America's youth) left Mad as EC's only commodity.


Star Wars
From the beginning Mad has presented examples of crossdressing both in its comic and magazine forms. Mad never seemed to look down on the practice, instead finding humor in it, like it finds humor in everything else. This month we'll look at several examples of crossdressing from throughout Mad's history.

Mad started early with the first female impersonator showing up in issue 3 (Feb/March 1953, recently reprinted in an anthology this summer). In one of the parodies Mad became famous for, the Lone Stranger stops a stagecoach robbery only to discover that one of the passengers isn't what she appears to be.

Mad eventually took parodies, particularly of movies, into all kinds of new formats. Star Wars alone got the basic parody, the musical version, the Mad look at Star Wars, and in issue #354 (February 1997) to commemorate the updated re-release they featured "Star Wars Playsets You May Have Missed." One playset we wouldn't have missed is "The Dizzy Droid Drag Cantina, complete with Chewbacca, Luke, C-3P0, and R2-D2 in various levels of dress and featuring the Extraterrestrial Village People.

Georgina
Georgina
Recent auctions at Sotheby's have highlighted Mad's art for its covers and posters. In recent months, their covers have included both Howard Stern and Dennis Rodman in wedding gowns for a same-sex ceremony, and Alfred E. Newman, the Mad mascot, dressed as Batgirl. But my personal favorite is a poster depicting Washington Cross-Dressing the Delaware. (For the full picture see the Mad Poster Special, still on newstands as of September 1997)

The other arena that Mad has excelled has been in its stable of artists and writers that it has featured through the years. Here is an example of Don Martin's style from issue 208 (July 1979). This is one of a series of funny takes on vending machines.
Change Machine
Change

Perhaps down the road we'll take another look at Mad's examples of crossdressing, but next month we'll focus on one Mad feature - Spy vs. Spy, and several examples of the spys' inept attempts to confuse their enemy by wearing a dress.

If you have any examples of crossdressing in comics, don't hesitate to let me know at BrittTV@aol.com.


Back to TGF's Home Page