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Alfred E. Neuman is the fictitious mascot and cover boy of ''Mad'', an American humor magazine. The face had drifted through U.S. pictography for decades before being claimed by ''Mad'' editor Harvey Kurtzman, and later named by the magazine's second editor Al Feldstein. He appeared occasionally in the early seasons of ''MADtv'' during sketches and interstitials and briefly appeared in the animated TV series ''Mad''. ==History== Since his debut in ''Mad'', Neuman's likeness has appeared on the cover of all but a handful of the magazine's 500 issues, distinguished by jug ears, a missing front tooth, and one eye lower than the other. His face is rarely seen in profile; he has virtually always been shown in front view, directly from behind, or in silhouette. Harvey Kurtzman first spotted the image on a postcard pinned to the office bulletin board of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff. "It was a face that didn't have a care in the world, except mischief," recalled Kurtzman. Shir-Cliff was later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.〔Shir-Cliff, Bernard. "The Karate Lesson". ''Help!'', October 1964.〕 In November 1954, Neuman made his ''Mad'' debut on the front cover of Ballantine's ''The Mad Reader'', a paperback collection of reprints from the first two years of ''Mad''. The character's first appearance in the comic book was on the cover of ''Mad'' #21 (March 1955), in a tiny image as part of a mock advertisement. A rubber mask bearing his likeness with "idiot" written underneath was offered for $1.29. ''Mad'' switched to a magazine format starting with issue #24, and Neuman's face appeared in a central position on the illustrated border used on the covers, with his now-familiar signature phrase "What, me worry?" written underneath. Initially, the phrase was rendered "What? Me worry?" These borders were used for five more issues, through ''Mad'' #30 (December 1956). The character was also briefly known as "Melvin Cowsnofsky" or "Mel Haney". In ''Mad'' #25, the face and name were shown together on separate pages as both Neuman and Mel Haney. The crowded cover shot on ''Mad'' #27 marked Neuman's first color appearance. When Al Feldstein took over as ''Mad''s editor in 1956, he seized upon the face: Mingo's defining portrait was used on the cover of ''Mad'' #30 in late 1956 as a supposed write-in candidate for the Presidency, and fixed his identity and appearance into the version that has been used ever since. In November 2008, Mingo's original cover art featuring this first official portrait of Neuman sold at auction for $203,150. Mingo painted seven more Neuman covers through 1957, and later returned to become the magazine's signature cover artist throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Mingo produced 97 ''Mad'' covers in total, and also illustrated dozens of additional cover images for ''Mads many reprint Specials and its line of paperbacks. Frank Kelly Freas rendered Neuman for ''Mad'' from 1958 to 1962. Current contributor Mark Frederickson has become the second-most prolific ''Mad'' cover artist, with 80 covers as of 2013. Neuman has appeared in one form or another on the cover of nearly every issue of ''Mad'' and its spinoffs since that issue and continuing to the present day, with a small handful of exceptions. Two such departures were ''Mad'' #233 (September 1982) which replaced Neuman's image with that of Pac-Man, and "Mad" #195 (December 1977) which instead featured the message "Pssst! Keep This Issue Out of the Hands of Your Parents! (Make 'Em Buy Their Own Copy!)". Even when Neuman is not part of the cover gag, or when the cover is entirely text-based, his disembodied head generally appears in miniature form. The most notorious Neuman-free cover was #166 (April 1974), which featured a human hand giving the profane "middle finger" gesture while declaring ''Mad'' to be "The Number One Ecch Magazine".〔(Cover image to ''Mad'' #166 at madcoversite.com )〕 Some newsstands that normally carried ''Mad'' chose not to display or sell this issue. Neuman's ubiquity as a grinning cover boy grew as the magazine's circulation quadrupled, but the single highest-selling issue of ''Mad'' depicted only his feet. The cover image of issue #161,〔(Cover image to ''Mad'' #161 at madcoversite.com )〕 spoofing the 1973 film ''The Poseidon Adventure'', showed Neuman floating upside-down inside a life preserver. The original art for this cover was purchased at auction in 1992 for $2,200 by Annie Gaines, the widow of ''Mad'' founder and publisher William Gaines, and subsequently given on permanent loan to ''Mad'' writer Dick DeBartolo.〔DeBartolo, Dick. ''Good Days and Mad: A Hysterical Tour Behind the Scenes at Mad Magazine''. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1994.〕 The image was copied in 1998 for issue #369 spoofing the hit film ''Titanic''. A female version of Neuman named Moxie Cowznofski appeared briefly during the late 1950s, occasionally described in editorial text as Neuman's "girlfriend". Neuman and Moxie were sometimes depicted side-by-side, defeating any speculation that Moxie was possibly Neuman in female guise. Her name was inspired by Moxie, a soft drink manufactured in Portland, Maine, which was sold nationwide in the 1950s and whose logo appeared as a running visual gag in many early issues of ''Mad''. In late 1959, ''Mad'' released a 45 rpm single entitled "What—Me Worry?" on ABC Paramount 12013 that was credited to Neuman, and featured an uncredited voice actor singing the song as Neuman. (The B-side of the single, "Potrzebie", is an instrumental.) ''Mad'' routinely combines Neuman with another character or inanimate object for its cover images. Neuman has appeared in a slew of guises, including Santa Claus, Darth Vader, George Washington, King Kong, Baby New Year, Lawrence of Arabia, Batman, Robin, Spider-Man, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Rosemary's Baby, George S. Patton, the Fiddler on the Roof, an Aurora-style model kit, Alex from ''A Clockwork Orange'', ''Bonnie and Clyde'' actor Michael J. Pollard, Barbra Streisand, Mr. T, Indiana Jones, Radar O'Reilly, Bruce Springsteen, Max Headroom, Mr. Spock, Bart Simpson, Pee Wee Herman, Michael Jackson, a California Raisin, a face on Mount Rushmore, as Egyptian hieroglyphics, part of a fireworks display, a jack-in-the-box, an engraved bottle stopper, a scarecrow, the Headless Horseman, the sequins on Michael Jackson's glove, Don King, Robin Hood, Abraham Lincoln, Guns N' Roses' Slash, Kim Pine, the Man in the Moon, an Oscar statuette, an "Operation" board game, Jabba the Hutt, Wolverine, Gollum, Lance Armstrong, SpongeBob SquarePants, Agent Smith from ''The Matrix'', Kurt Cobain, Shrek, Dr. Octopus, Dennis Rodman, ''The Incredibles Jack-Jack, a zombie, a victim of a zombie swarm, a caveman, a fetus, a boa constrictor, a rat, a weathervane, a Ferengi, Greek column, the joker in a deck of cards, the bull's eye in a target, the three wise monkeys, part of a totem pole, a cigar label, George W. Bush, Justin Timberlake, Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort, Barry Bonds, Suri Cruise, Wilson the Volleyball, the Mona Lisa, Che Guevara, Lil Wayne, Barack Obama, Rorschach (from ''Watchmen''), Adolf Hitler, Justin Bieber, Jimmy Carter, Finn the Human, and Uncle Sam ("Who Needs You?"), among other familiar faces. Since his initial unsuccessful run in 1956, Neuman has periodically been re-offered as a candidate for President with the slogan, "You could do worse... and always have!" Along with his face, ''Mad'' also includes a short humorous quotation credited to Neuman with every issue's table of contents. (Example: ''"It takes one to know one... and vice versa!"'') Some of these quotations were collected in the 1997 book ''Mad: The Half-Wit and Wisdom of Alfred E. Neuman'', which was illustrated by Sergio Aragonés. Neuman is now used exclusively as a mascot and iconic symbol of the magazine, but before this status was codified, he was referenced in several early articles. In one, Neuman answered a letter from a suicidal reader by giving "expert advice" on the best technique for tying a hangman's knot. Other articles featured the school newspaper of "Neuman High School", and a bulletin from "Alfred E. Neuman University". An article entitled "Alfred E. Neuman's Family Tree" depicted historical versions of Neuman from various eras. Since then, Neuman has appeared only occasionally inside the magazine's articles. A recurring article titled "Poor Alfred's Almanac" showed his face atop the page, but otherwise the character had no role in the text. In a 1968 article, Neuman's face was assembled, feature by feature, from parts of photographs of well-known politicos, including then-President Lyndon B. Johnson (left ear), Richard Nixon (nose), Oregon Governor Mark Hatfield (eyes), and Ronald Reagan (hair). The gap in his teeth (which was otherwise the grin of Dwight D. Eisenhower) came from "The 'Credibility Gap' Created by Practically All Politicians". Neuman's famous motto is the intellectually uncurious "What, me worry?" This was changed for one issue to "Yes, me worry!" after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. On the cover of current printings of the paperback ''The Ides of Mad'', as rendered by long-time cover artist Norman Mingo, Neuman is portrayed as a Roman bust with his catch phrase engraved on the base, translated into Latin—''Quid, Me Anxius Sum?'' Neuman's surname is often misspelled as "Newman".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Google search for "Alfred E. Newman" )〕 Neuman's most prominent physical feature is his gap-toothed grin, with a few notable exceptions. On the cover of issue #236 (January 1983), Neuman was featured with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The cover showed E.T. using his famous "healing finger" to touch Neuman's mouth and cause the missing tooth to appear. The cover of issue #411 (November 2001), the first to be produced following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, showed a close-up of Neuman's face, but his gap was now filled with an American flag. A text gag on the cover of issue #263 (June 1986) claimed that the UPC was really a "Close-up Photograph of Neuman's Missing Tooth". Neuman also appeared as himself in a political cartoon, after ''Newsweek'' had been criticized for using computer graphics to retouch the teeth of Bobbi McCaughey. The cartoon was rendered in the form of a split-screen comparison, in which Neuman was featured on the cover of ''Mad'' with his usual gap-toothed grin, then also featured on the cover of ''Newsweek'', but with a perfect smile. Despite the primacy of Neuman's incomplete smile, his other facial features have occasionally attracted notice. Artist Andy Warhol said that seeing Neuman taught him to love people with big ears. In 1958, ''Mad'' published letters from several readers noting the resemblance between Neuman and England's Prince Charles, then nine years old.〔"Letters Dept". ''Mad'' 38 (March 1958).〕 Shortly thereafter, an angry letter under a Buckingham Palace letterhead arrived at the ''Mad'' offices: "Dear Sirs No it isn't a bit—not the least little bit like me. So jolly well stow it! See! Charles. P." The letter was authenticated as having been written on triple-cream laid royal stationery bearing an official copper-engraved crest. The postmark indicated it had been mailed from a post office within a short walking distance of Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the original disappeared years ago while on loan to another magazine and has never been recovered.〔Reidelbach, Maria. ''Completely Mad'', New York: Little Brown, 1991. ISBN 0-316-73890-5〕 For many years, ''Mad'' sold prints of the official portrait of Neuman through a small house ad on the letters page of the magazine. In the early years, the price was one for 25 cents; three for 50 cents; nine for a dollar; or 27 for two dollars. A live-action version of Neuman—an uncredited actor wearing a mask—appears briefly in the 1980 film ''Up the Academy'' which was originally released to theaters as ''Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy''. ''Mad'' later pulled its support from the film, and all footage of the Neuman character was excised from North American home video and television releases, although it was reinstated for the 2006 DVD release. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alfred E. Neuman」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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