In May of 1968, MAD Magazine went to press with a political cover — a Norman Mingo painting featuring line art caricatures by Mort Drucker. Drucker drew the eight most prominent politicians in the country at that moment…basically the guys actively competing for the presidency plus President Lyndon Johnson. Johnson had announced he would not stand for re-election but a lot of folks thought he still planned to swoop down on the convention and somehow wrest a re-nomination.
The proofs of MAD #122 had just come off the presses on June 5 when Robert Kennedy was assassinated. The MAD guys decided it would be inappropriate to leave Bobby on their cover so they made a quick substitution, replacing him with a drawing of Alfred. Collector Steve Kuhn recently came across some copies of the "before" cover and he was nice enough to let me share one here. Just a little piece of history.