Only those MAD covers by a identifiable artist or photographer are included on the list. Cover colorists (e.g., Tom Luth for MAD No. 522) or letterers (e.g., poster lettering for MAD No. 501 as identified in "Inside MAD") are excluded.

Included are covers with more than one artist (e.g., No. 122 by Mort Drucker and Norman Mingo) and both artists for the following issues which feature both front and back covers: No. 60 (Bob Clarke/Bob Clarke), 225 (Mort Drucker/Jack Rickard), and 235 (Jack Rickard/Boris Vallejo). Mort Drucker illustrated four different versions of the cover of No. 359 and Sam Viviano, Roberto Parada, James Bennett, Richard Williams, and Mark Fredrickson illustrated two different versions of the covers of No. 371, 383, 395, 407, and 455 respectively. Therefore, these artists are credited with multiple covers for those issues. Historical art reprinted on the cover of MAD is included in the lists: "The Mona Lisa" (No. 14) by Leonardo DaVinci,"A Mad Tea Party" (No. 15) by Sir John Tenniel, "Girl Before A Mirror" (No. 22) by Pablo Picasso, and "Boss Tweed" (No. 25) by Thomas Nast.

Roberto Parada and Mark Stutzman illustrated two different cover version for No. 419, Mark Fredrickson and Hermann Mejía illustrated two different cover versions for No. 431, Mark Fredrickson and Bill Wray illustrated two different cover versions for No. 437, Drew Friedman and Bruce Timm illustrated two different cover versions of No. 438, Mark Fredrickson and Liz Lomax illustrated two different cover versions of MAD No. 443, and Mark Fredrickson and Drew Friedman illustrated two different cover versions of No. 449.

The covers of four issues wrap around to the back cover (No. 35, 254, 266, and 354) and three issues have a reverse angle view of the front cover on the back cover (No. 30, 44, and 257).

Covers with uncredited art are not included unless identified through other sources such as "MAD Cover to Cover". A number of covers are text only with either no art (e.g., No. 17, 19, 20, etc.) or only a small icon of Alfred E. Neuman by an uncredited artist (e.g. No. 71, 73, 83, etc.). Some of the latter icons are credited to Norman Mingo in "MAD Cover to Cover" and, hence, are included in the list. Cover artists using the pseudonyms Mutz and Armanli are listed under their real names of Mort Küntsler and Doug Webb, respectively. Although the cover of No. 411 is credited to John Caldwell on the table of contents page, that cover was pulled in favor of one with a patriotic theme (using an Alfred E. Neuman illustration by Mingo), due to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. All fifty of the Alfred E. Neuman images by various artists that appear on the cover of No. 423 are reprinted from previous covers and, therefore, are not included in the list.