Alfred E. Neuman’s Portrait to me is a symbol of the kind of humor that the people of today experience. I think this portrait is comparable to the Mona Lisa since the popularity of this portrait is almost on par with the Mona Lisa’s. The minute you see the smile and the face of the woman in the painting, you think, "Mona Lisa!" this reaction is similar to the reaction that takes place with Alfred’s Portrait (It’s the Mad Magazine guy!). This picture though in black and white has a lot of value involved. The picture looks like any other normal mock cartoon, but under close examination you can see the light reflected off the cheeks of this Mad magazine idol as if he had just gotten his picture taken. Whereas the Mona Lisa has lots of color, the effect on the viewer is less.
The lighting is simple yet creative, from this you can see a lot of traits of this character. The lighting is in black and white, ever more emboldening his look of defiance. The lines in the picture show him as a very happy-go-lucky type of guy. His eyebrows are slightly distorted giving him the "what me worry?" look. The dimples in his cheeks curve upward accentuating his overly large ears. The lines in his hair tell you that he doesn’t really care about his appearance making him look like a prankster or a comedian.
The Balance in this portrait is uneven since Alfred’s facial characteristics are strange and non-symmetrical. If you were to divide his face in half it would seem as if you were portraying twins instead of just one person. Unlike Alfred’s portrait, if you were to divide the Mona Lisa symmetrically each half would look the same. Not only does the background give this away, but also her expression is the same boring old grimace, no matter what.
In the portrait of Alfred E Neuman the guy in the picture looks like he has just been told the funniest joke of the year and is still in the after-laugh of it. Though this maybe perceived by others to be a sarcastic grin, I see this picture as if he were on the verge of tears (having been told such a funny joke). Whereas the Mona Lisa on the other hand is expressionless her "serene" smile really a mask of boredom, making her motionless and having her pose for this portrait whilst the MAD idol is more or less in his natural form.
In the Mona Lisa, emphasis seems to really be a problem since the whole thing seems pretty dark and emphasized with no contrast to any object in the entire portrait. Emphasis, however, is no problem for the portrait of Alfred. The whites and blacks are stark and emboldened in the portrait since it is against an all white background. Having more shadow than the Mona Lisa and a brighter background emphasizes whatever darker color in the portrait. Even the subjects face has the appearance of a tanned person not at all the expected appearance of a pale caucasian at that time.
In other words, I think that the Mona Lisa is highly overrated not only for the reasons above but mainly for the following, the Mona Lisa’s drab colors vs. Alfred Neumans vivid tones, his interesting demeanor vs. her mask of boredom and her lack of color vs. his excess of interesting traits making him above all other portraits and therefore worthy of the title above the Mona Lisa.