I never bought the Cochran Color set, but I did buy a cheap single Volume 3 from a used bookshop many years ago, as I recall it was the hardest volume of the four to get for some reason. With the advent of the Mad Archives I'm glad I waited overall and agree with Shagbag that it is the best 'iteration' of the collected Mad Comics in color...mostly based on the color mixed with the paper stock....however for some reason I'm still partial to the Cochran BW Mad set overall....I like the look of original artwork sans color, I guess....