1981 Aragones Pictorial Map of the United States for Mad Magazine

This is a 1981 Sergio Aragonés pictorial map of the United States created for Mad Magazine. Comical illustrations of people populate the map. Many of our favorites are comic scenes, including a hunter sneaking up on a herd of bison wearing a bison costume only to be spotted and confronted by one of the bison, or a ship captain yelling at someone who unplugged the lighthouse blaming him for his ship sinking. Another is a McDonald's fan proposing a second arch in St. Louis! A rocket launches from Cape Canaveral and the Wright Flyer appears over Kitty Hawk. Famous landmarks also make appearances, including the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco's legendary fog, the Space Needle in Seattle, and Mount Rushmore. Aragonés included himself in the piece. He is illustrated standing next to the title banner holding a pen. With all the detail present here, every look will provide the opportunity to create a new story!

Verso Content

Maps of Los Angeles, New York City, Alaska, and Hawaii occupy the verso. Los Angeles's legendary traffic takes center stage in that city, while LAX and Disneyland make appearances, along with the La Brea Tar Pits and the Goodyear Blimp. In New York, the World Trade Center, Washington Square Arch, Staten Island Ferry, and Brooklyn Bridge are all illustrated. Mad headquarters is included, along with Yankee Stadium and a disturbingly full subway car, complete with a stereotypically annoyed conductor. Alaska has a pipeline, a dogsled, and Soviet and American soldiers staring at each other through binoculars over the Bering Strait. Hawaii features tourists on the beach, watersports, and a tour guide describing Captain Cook's death.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Sergio Aragonés and published in the MAD Super Special Winter 1981. We note six examples cataloged in OCLC which are part of the collections at the Library of Congress, the Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Bibliotheek Universiteit van Amsterdam.