I’ve long said, of myself, that it all started with Mad Magazine. I can trace a clear line from there through Dr Demento, Monty Python and National Lampoon to Gahan Wilson, Gary Larson and TV Tropes. Sigh.
When I was a young’un we would visit my much older cousin’s family every few months. I always looked forward to these visits because I could lose myself in his collection of Mads. This was in the mid-1960s.
When the adults weren’t nearby I would quickly thumb through his stack of Playboys, but those vintage Mad magazines easily trump the Playboys for nostalgia.
mmm
I remember the Watergate Follies, set to the music of Gilbert & Sullivan…
J. Edgar Hoover: I am the very model of a modern criminologist,
My instinct for survival would intrigue an anthropologist.
For more than forty years I’ve clung to my official residence,
outlasting Water Lippmann not to mention seven presidents.
But rather than remove me from my post proprietorial,
They’d rather put the hammer to the Jefferson Memorial.
It’s known you see I’ve go the goods on Congressmen and Senators,
*Including information on their children and progenitors.
*Richard Nixon (contemplating his running mate for the 1972 election):On a chair in my office, Lou Harris told me:
“Dump Spiro, dump Spiro, dump Spiro!”
And I said to him, "Louie, why should I agree
To Dump Spiro, dump Spiro, dump Spiro!"
**"All the parents adore him when hippies he scolds, **
And the Legion shouts ‘Yes!’ when the flag he upholds."
Louie said, "There are votes now for eighteen-year olds,
"Dump Spiro, dump Spiro, dump Spiro!"
Now you know, Spiro, I’m awfully fond,
of You Spiro, you Spiro, you Spiro.
But a Lou Harris poll is an order from God!
"Dump Spiro, dump Spiro, dump Spiro!"
Forty-five years later, and the words to both of those come right to mind!
I’m pissed off at this announcement. For some asinine reason they moved the operation to California. From what I read - no one from the NYC office went along. Surprise! The material well ran dry. Idiots at Warner/DC Comics are to blame. They should do the honorable thing and be willing to sell the trademarks, etc to another publisher willing to take them. If you’re out there Mr. Alternate Publisher, consider me number one on your subscription list.
I see the cover price for a regular issue in 2018 was $5.99! My last issue purchased was 60 cents I think.
Cheap!
Thinking back, another thing that ruined it was when they started to include ads in the magazine. Now it’s completely understandable why they would do it, but there was a point I literally couldn’t tell if something was an ad or a fake product they invented. Didn’t help 90% of their ads were for children’s things like green ketchup at the time.
When I was in high school, I talked our choir teacher to include some of the fucked up lyrics they wrote for Christmas songs. I remember they were a smash with the audience, especially We Three Clods.
Our local theater group used several skits from The Mad Show in our annual revues.
My high school English & Literature teacher didn’t tolerate anyone reading MAD in class. She would confiscate the magazine, then turn to the Shakespeare parodies and read them to the class. She claimed you had to learn the real Shakespeare to appreciate the parodies.
I have fondness for Mad since it was, for me, a truly genuine act of rebellion to buy it and read it. I had a conservative father who wouldn’t allow it in his presence because he thought it was subversive, lewd, and disrespectful. The very person W.F.Gaines and company warned me about! So I made every effort to read and hide every issue I could find. Down with The Establishment!
Mad Magazine really died when Bill Gaines died.
Imagine, not accepting advertising revenue because he always made fun of advertising, and thought it would be a conflict of interest.
I always said my writing style influences were Mike Royko and Mad Magazine.
This is horrible news!,
:(:mad:
I still get a copy of Mad whenever I fly, which is often.
I first got into it in 1970 at age 10.
The 1970’s were the golden age for these types of magazines. Mad, Cracked, Crazy, Sick, Car-Toons (anyone remember that?). There was a mag in the late 70’s or so named Trash that tried to go head to head against Mad. It’s selling point was that it was cheaper than Mad. But it’s content was terrible.
Goodnight, Sweet Prince.
I had an older sibling that bought a few copies in the 50s. I bought a few later on. It was really fun to okay.
I hadn’t seen it in a long time, so at the library today I looked at the latest issue.
Egad, this was bad. The artwork was just wrong. Color, glossy, and dense. Like poor imitations of Garbage Pail Kids cards.
And trying to read it was mind boggling. Okay, where is the joke hiding?
There was a page regarding something about Jaffee’s “signature”. I looked at several of the panels. I couldn’t figure out what this was about or anything.
And the multiple pages of “fan” letters (near the end of course) was a visual and textual hodgepodge of stupid.
This is how bad it’s gotten: the fold-in artwork was trivially. Nothing on the edge pieces connected to one another. The only part that connected was the text on the bottom. And that was done poorly. Stuff on the left not aligned with the stuff on the right. A high school art major could have done a better job.
$5.99?
Time to die.
I started reading it in the 60s and bought every issue I saw (never subscribed). It and the later National Lampoon were landmarks in developing my sense of humor.
One of the highlights of my writing career was when I got a personal rejection from them. They liked the story, but it was too much like something they had recently run.
I was a big fan of Dick DeBartolo, Don Martin,* Frank Jacobs, Dave Berg, Al Jaffee, Mort Drucker, Sergio Aragones, and Jack Davis. I bought a lot of the early reprint collections and loved the Kurtzman stuff, though I think the Feldstein era was its peak.
I looked at it from time to time the last few years and it was disappointing. About the only good thing is that they will be reprinting the older stuff for a new generation.
*I got a great deal on the two-volume complete Dan Martin books, but was disappointed when I realized there were very few I hadn’t already seen.
I just bought 5 copies of the August 2019 issue. One for me, 1 for a buddy and 3 to sell at a later date.
OH, GODDAMMIT! I just pissed myself laughing! 
I read MAD religiously from age 10 through high school.
My son has actually had a subscription since he became a teen. In fact, I just renewed it for 2 years a few months ago for him. :smack:
Which ones? I saw the original Mad Show off Broadway with a pre-Laugh In Joanne Worley. It was great.
Same here. “It’s your decision” became a catchphrase in our family.
OK, who else has kept their copies?
I have 30 or so from the 1970s in a box in the attic.
mmm