TRASH #1, 1 of 5

Some people object to my calling all humor magazines MAD imitations. They have a point. After all, I wouldn't say Burger King was an imitation of McDonalds or Facebook was an imitation of Myspace. More than anything, it's shorthand. MAD didn't own their formula nor were they the first to do what they did. They created the template for which others followed suit, though. Some were more like MAD than others, and depending on the editor they tried to do their own take with varying degrees of similarity.

Despite this, there were some magazines that were unquestionably created solely for the purpose of emulating MAD and this is one of them. For every magazine that had its own style, there were magazines like TRASH. You can make a magazine with a cover mascot, the same audience as MAD, 52 pages in black and white on newsprint, and even with seemingly those kind of restrictions there's still room for originality. Not so with TRASH. In addition to imitating MAD, they imitated other juvenile humor magazines, and not only cashed in on the success of those magazines, like everyone else they also cashed in on other elements of popular culture. They seemed to aim towards a younger audience than usual with their posters and contests.

Thanks again to Michael Sullivan for providing me with xeroxes of magazines I don't have.



At one time, it was considered absurd that there would be a convention devoted solely to science fiction. Wouldn't that be weird if there were such a thing?
It's supposed to take place in 2001 which in 1978 was considered a long way away. The artist either didn't pay attention or there's a city on Planet X that looks just like New York City. Or maybe they were suggesting that Planet X would be the name for Earth in the future.