I have vivid memories of my mom getting really upset when I brought home an issue of Mad - I was nine years old and the issue feature was a parody of The Exorcist.
Anyway, Mad died when Bill Gaines did. I still can't believe that succumbed to running advertisements now.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link
up till about 11 I spent my allowance money on mad mags and books.
utterly classic.
― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 22:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 22:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 23:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 23:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 23:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 23:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 23:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 23:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 00:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 00:27 (nineteen years ago) link
what's viz ipso? I also read cracked but it kinda sucked. This is weird b/c I saw an issue of Mad up at the front counter of 711 today and I thought that was weird, having not seen one in forever.
― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 00:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 00:47 (nineteen years ago) link
I loved it when I was little - would stay up past my bedtime, lying on the floor by my bedroom door and reading by the hallway light. But, as has been stated above, it has no relevance now whatsoever.
I loved Duck Edwing best.
Anyway, it's hard to enjoy after the repeated shellacings at the hands of The Simpsons. I guess you could say the satirical torch has been passed, huh?
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:00 (nineteen years ago) link
Very crass and bawdy but not in a good way.
― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:02 (nineteen years ago) link
xpost
― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:04 (nineteen years ago) link
xpost: Viz is my favorite comic ever! goldfish boy! FELIX AND HIS AMAZING UNDERPANTS!Drunk Bakers!!!
xxpost: there was a spy vs spy computer game as well. terrible.
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― x Jeremy (Atila the Honeybun), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 01:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huck, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 05:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 05:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 05:59 (nineteen years ago) link
Viz Comic - British institution. Based more on DC Thompson-type titles (Beano, Dandy etc) than TV parody, although for several years c-list celebrities have made appearances in strips where they have unlikely adventures (didn't Esther Rantzen originally own the vibrating arse-faced mountain goats?). I've been buying it since #23 (mid-80s), and it's only had about five new jokes since. THIS IS A GOOD THING.
― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 08:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― m. (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 09:30 (nineteen years ago) link
some lovely pre-mad paul coker illustrations posted here:
http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2008/10/bay-of-gigs-monday-cartoon-day.html
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 21:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Nice, I've heard about Help! but seen little from it.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:45 (fifteen years ago) link
John Landis working on a biopic of Bill Gaines.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 16 May 2010 13:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Every time I need to feel better in an implacable way I always check out his bio, The Mad World of William M. Gaines, from the library. I find it so inspiring. Him & Roald Dahl were wine buddies!
― This is four-dimensional art; the 4th dimension is incredibly powerful. (Abbott), Monday, 17 May 2010 02:53 (thirteen years ago) link
William Gaines favorite movie was "Inherit the Wind." He said he could relate to it.
― This is four-dimensional art; the 4th dimension is incredibly powerful. (Abbott), Monday, 17 May 2010 02:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Mentioned on the rolling obit thread but RIP John Severin:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/02/14/rip-john-severin/
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 February 2012 16:41 (twelve years ago) link
Aww. Dude was an awesome draftsman and always game for anything. And he'd been doing it forever! I was always surprised in recent years when I saw new stuff of his. These guys who practically die at their drawing boards are such an inspiration to find something you love doing until the day you bow out.
― SNEEZED GOING DOWN STEPS, PAIN WHEN PUTTING SOCKS ON (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
I thought he was immortal. spent 60+ years working in comics.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 14 February 2012 17:09 (twelve years ago) link
Some Severin greatness here:
http://www.ha.com/common/search_results.php?Nty=1&Ntk=SI_Titles&Ne=1058&N=790+231+1067&Ntt=john+severin
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 14 February 2012 18:18 (twelve years ago) link
This is a great interview from '99. Nice to see Comics Journal post it, if only because it means I don't have to dig out those issues.
http://www.tcj.com/the-john-severin-interview-parts-i-ii/
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 14 February 2012 20:41 (twelve years ago) link
http://mobile.avclub.com/articles/get-involved-internet-help-bring-the-story-of-mad,91785/?mobile=true
An important Kickstarter!
Director Alan Bernstein hopes to change that with When We Went Mad! A Documentary Of Ecch-ic Proportions, a film chronicling the magazine’s development through the decades. But he needs your help! Bernstein is looking to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter to complete his film, and is a little over halfway past his goal, with nine days remaining. Considering the magazine’s impact and legacy, it’s shocking that a film like this doesn’t already exist, but you now have an opportunity to help correct that oversight.
― The New Jack Mormons! (kingfish), Wednesday, 30 January 2013 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
I can still recall the first time I read a Mad Magazine. It was in Reno, NV, on a summer vacation car trip with my parents in 1964. A few moths later I discovered some paperbacks that reprinted the first several years of Mad from the mid-fifties. I still think that Mad's golden age was before my time, as captured in those paperbacks. Every panel was crammed with background visual jokes.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 30 January 2013 19:45 (eleven years ago) link
does everything need a fucken documentary now?
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, 30 January 2013 19:49 (eleven years ago) link
everything that's exploitable from boomer era, yes WGW
Grady Hendrix on the movie parodies:
http://filmcomment.com/article/mad-magazine-movie-parodies
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 14 March 2013 15:20 (eleven years ago) link
shall be going to see this when i'm in NYC:
http://www.societyillustrators.org/The-Museum/2013/Harvey-Kurtzman/The-Art-of-Harvey-Kurtzman.aspx
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 14 March 2013 15:23 (eleven years ago) link
Nice article
― The New Jack Mormons! (kingfish), Thursday, 14 March 2013 18:33 (eleven years ago) link
yeah great piece. last paragraph is extra lols
The magazine once received a letter from Lucasfilm’s legal department after their Empire Strikes Back parody, demanding that they recall all printed copies of the issue and destroy them. MAD replied by sending a copy of another letter they had received the previous month—from George Lucas, offering to buy the original artwork for the Empire parody and comparing Mort Drucker to Leonardo Da Vinci and the parody’s writer, Dick De Bartolo, to Mark Twain. They never heard from Lucasfilm’s legal department again.
― his girlfriend was all 'ugh and he wears a solar backpack' (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 14 March 2013 19:56 (eleven years ago) link
so, MAD gets lots of love.
for a reason i can no longer recall when young, i used to get CRACKED on a regular basis - which being UK based is really weird.
my mountain of CRACKED mags has long since gone missing .. which i often regret dearly.
should i waste time/money/energy on this regret, or, would i take one look at an old copy and realise the errors of my ways ..
― mark e, Thursday, 14 March 2013 20:46 (eleven years ago) link
CRACKED had gd distribution in the UK for years, for some reason
CRACKED also managed to secure former MAD/EC artist John Severin and, near the end of his life, Don Martin - but on the whole their contributors were def second (or third) division compared to the likes of Mort Drucker
so mark e i wld say that it's prob best not to spoil a happy childhood memory (also, I suspect that back issues these days are not that cheap - don't see them that often in the UK)
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 14 March 2013 20:56 (eleven years ago) link
yeah .. i know that stuff is ££ now - hence my concern re tracking some old copies down.weirdly i did wonder re don martin .. i thought i had seen his stuff in CRACKED but given previous posts re him and MAD etc, thought this was a false memory .. used to have some DM books as well.he was such a massive talent ..
― mark e, Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:04 (eleven years ago) link
for some reason I thought CRACKED grab Sergio Aragones at one point too
― his girlfriend was all 'ugh and he wears a solar backpack' (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:05 (eleven years ago) link
but yeah they were always 2nd-tier
us brits always love the underdog ..
― mark e, Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:10 (eleven years ago) link
p sure aragones never worked for CRACKED
mark, if you like don martin it's worth hunting round for this MASSIVE complete box set of all his MAD magazine work (doesn't include the original paperback material as that's still owned by the Martin estate) - i picked up my copy in a London remainder shop for well under £30 (and then had to lug it all the way back to glasgow!), and i'm sure there are copies to be had online - it's a stunner
http://www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/don.jpg
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:12 (eleven years ago) link
ah yeah a friend has that. it's amazing to thumb through.
― his girlfriend was all 'ugh and he wears a solar backpack' (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:14 (eleven years ago) link
I got a remainder from The Strand, and they shipped it to my house for whatever their flat fee is - $4.50 or something. It's amazing.
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
oh my god.that looks properly fantastic .. f*ck .. i want that.
― mark e, Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
£125 on amazon ..
dream on ..
― mark e, Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:17 (eleven years ago) link
unless his recent illness has slowed him down, Aragones has only missed one issue of Mad in forty years - of course he's fast enough to have had a falling out, done a year's worth of work for Cracked in an afternoon and then gone back to Mad, but I doubt it
― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:22 (eleven years ago) link
I'm probably just misremembering when they got Don Martin, thought there were some other MAD guys that went with him for some reason
― his girlfriend was all 'ugh and he wears a solar backpack' (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:29 (eleven years ago) link
no, that was a big and solo deal - iirc Cracked didn't generally grant copyright but they made the exception to snag Martin. and only because he'd already walked from Mad over royalties - it wasn't a headhunting per se.
― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:49 (eleven years ago) link
(actually if Mort Todd was still editor then he might have relaxed copyright policies generally - I think he and Clowes own The Uggly Family)
― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:52 (eleven years ago) link
but they made the exception to snag Martin.
fascinating stuff ..
this is proper 'mad men' styled politics but with fat noses as opposed to ... well, you figure the rest out ..
― mark e, Thursday, 14 March 2013 21:54 (eleven years ago) link
http://therealalfrede.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-real-alfred-e.html
― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Friday, 15 March 2013 01:20 (eleven years ago) link
Film Comment on Mad's movie parodies:
― clemenza, Saturday, 23 March 2013 21:48 (eleven years ago) link
r.i.p. bob clarke:
http://www.newsfromme.com/2013/04/01/bob-clarke-r-i-p/
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 2 April 2013 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
This has to be one of the most trenchant and cutting(and clever) political gags(on the cover, even) they've done in, what, decades?
https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1236155_10151609688931596_802093778_n.jpg
― Your Own Personal El Guapo (kingfish), Monday, 16 September 2013 07:20 (ten years ago) link
Al Feldstein has passed
https://twitter.com/AP/status/461582993648545792
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:16 (nine years ago) link
ah man RIP. thanks for the excellent comics. the art book that came out recently was great.
― fit and working again, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:31 (nine years ago) link
great interview.
― fit and working again, Friday, 2 May 2014 16:53 (nine years ago) link
Hey, does anyone remember a piece in Mad from the early-mid 80s that was like "honest stickers on albums" that had lots of sick burns on Springsteen, and Stevie Nicks solo albums, and Stevie Wonder's Musiquarium was a rip-off for anyone who had his albums? And (and this is a longshot) anyone remember which issue it might have been, or somewhere I can find it online?
― please don't shampoo your eyes (stevie), Monday, 12 October 2015 12:46 (eight years ago) link
There were at least 2 installments, of which the second ran in Mad #270 - which includes Springsteen ("This may be your last chance to enjoy this artist before marriage turns him into a wimp").
― Sebastian (Royal Mermaid Mover), Monday, 12 October 2015 15:45 (eight years ago) link
First installment: Mad #262 - this one with Stevie Nicks ("Solo album by member of a hit group. One artist out of five means album is only one-fifth as good").
― Sebastian (Royal Mermaid Mover), Monday, 12 October 2015 15:53 (eight years ago) link
holy shit - thank you so much sebastian!
― please don't shampoo your eyes (stevie), Tuesday, 13 October 2015 19:19 (eight years ago) link
i swear i have never stopped thinking about that stevie nicks one
Wow, this is critical:
Al Jaffee Explains How Mad Magazine Made American Humor Jewish
The adamant refusal of the editors to explain the made-up word became a running joke. Today, Mad scholars theorize that potrzebie was in fact based on a Polish word that Kurtzman discovered on a jar of aspirin. According to Jaffee, though, this is not the case: “There was an expression in Lithuania when I was a kid — “putz-rebbe.” Harvey must have heard that. Putz is genitals and it is applied as an insult to the rebbe. It’s like saying, ‘Oh that stupid teacher’ or ‘putz-rebbe.’”
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Tuesday, 23 February 2016 17:42 (eight years ago) link
Reaching mass new readerships and training them to laugh at and challenge broader trends, Mad Magazine can be seen as a central force destabilizing mainstream platforms, and at times doing so from a Jewish American perspective. And as Jaffee pointed out, not only were they writers and artists taking down the mainstream world, they were also “making fun of ourselves. We made fun of a certain kind of Yiddishkeit just by using these words. Farshimmelt. Furshlugenner. Potrzebie.” Yet in the act of satirizing both worlds, the magazine transformed itself into a mainstream American voice. And in its evolution, Mad taught its broad readership to be more comfortable with New York Jewish culture. By the 1970s and 1980s, the writers’ rooms in virtually every sitcom on American TV were filled with men who had grown up reading Mad. If “Seinfeld” became the number one show in suburban Texas or in Boise, Idaho, it was in part because Mad had paved the way.Read more: http://forward.com/culture/yiddish-culture/333672/al-jaffee-explains-how-mad-magazine-made-american-humor-jewish/#ixzz410y84BXE
Read more: http://forward.com/culture/yiddish-culture/333672/al-jaffee-explains-how-mad-magazine-made-american-humor-jewish/#ixzz410y84BXE
― Darkest Cosmologist junk (kingfish), Tuesday, 23 February 2016 17:51 (eight years ago) link
Jack Davis valentines
https://twitter.com/DennisThePerrin/status/831536083624194049
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 February 2017 18:46 (seven years ago) link
Bought my first Mad in 25 years and I’m going to read this bastard cover-to-cover pic.twitter.com/9rQNVDIDvA— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) August 10, 2018
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 16 August 2018 14:47 (five years ago) link
theoretically v intersted in looking at an issue of the Morrison / Goertz Brand New Gang Of Idiots era but literally never occurs to me to go and find a place that sells it
― 16, 35, DCP, Go! (sic), Thursday, 16 August 2018 18:22 (five years ago) link
I've spent the last few days since I saw this photo trying to work out what the lion's facial expression reminds me of, realized this morning that it's one of those Mad Magazine covers where someone gags at the sight of Alfred E Neuman
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DqshkTKV4AEax75.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/99/90/84/999084d8727a6b63d98e3809fd603985.jpg
― soref, Wednesday, 31 October 2018 08:18 (five years ago) link
whom amongst us is actually too young to know about this storied publication
― mh, Monday, 13 May 2019 20:10 (four years ago) link
no one who should be president
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 13 May 2019 20:21 (four years ago) link
I’ve checked out a few issues of the Burbank version now and: it’s good!
― blokes you can't rust (sic), Monday, 13 May 2019 20:39 (four years ago) link
Yeah, I picked up the recent issue with the Plop #1 reprint inside and enjoyed it - great Drew Friedman page especially - shame that they've given Bill Morrison the elbow
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 14 May 2019 08:35 (four years ago) link
oh? [googles] ha ha ha oh man, DiDio and Lee sitting on an executive panel to decide which executives to fire, and picking Chiarello and Morrison without bursting into flames from shame immediately
― blokes you can't rust (sic), Tuesday, 14 May 2019 08:57 (four years ago) link
the pre-Morrison editor responds to Mayor Pete Buttigieg: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/14/pete-buttigieg-alfred-e-neuman-i-dont-see-it-i-also-dont-buy-mayors-response/
― blokes you can't rust (sic), Thursday, 16 May 2019 08:17 (four years ago) link
so...mad may be ending, at least according to this post i've seen linked to a couple times on twitter
:( if true, of course
https://jedleland.wordpress.com/2019/07/03/mad-magazine-is-shutting-down/
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 4 July 2019 01:30 (four years ago) link
Blame Buttigieg...
― frustration and wonky passion (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 4 July 2019 03:12 (four years ago) link
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/b/b1/Dan_DiDio.JPG
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 4 July 2019 05:28 (four years ago) link
Tracerhand’s post here is among the most affecting things I’ve read on this site. Mad magazine C/D
― Una Palooka Dronka (hardcore dilettante), Thursday, 4 July 2019 05:53 (four years ago) link
thank you for saying so. i will always remember it. and guess what - i found that raiders of the lost ark issue :)to me it's not the same with glossy color pages tbh.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 4 July 2019 07:30 (four years ago) link
I was wondering why this thread kept rising to the top. Motherfucking DC, there really isn't anything they can't effortlessly ruin these days.
― I Ate Those Food (Old Lunch), Thursday, 4 July 2019 13:44 (four years ago) link
what a wonderful post tracer
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 4 July 2019 14:28 (four years ago) link
feels unbelievable that this was only three years ago
https://www.comixexperience.com/savagecritics/retailing/the-case-against-dan-didio
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 4 July 2019 19:54 (four years ago) link
he outlasted Nelson
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 4 July 2019 19:56 (four years ago) link
i've been reading mad's latest incarnation and it is doing good work so i am not surprised DC plans to shut it down and allow red hood and the outlaws unlimited rope to play out
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 4 July 2019 23:29 (four years ago) link
didn't realise this was out yet - Brian Hibbs running the 2018 bookstore numbers:
Our #8 publisher in the Top 750 is DC Entertainment.This is, frankly, shocking to me. For the first decade-plus I have been doing these charts, DC’s attention to backlist had naturally rendered them the #1 publisher…. With a bullet! And even when, the last few years, they lost the #1 spot to Scholastic, they were still majorly, significantly always at least #2.
weird how if you fire the two employees most responsible for building the company's backlist from zero over the previous three decades, and aim at selling your own re-re-rebooted IP only on Wednesdays, your sales might go down?
Year # of placing titles Unit sales Calculated Retail price[2003-2014 skipped]2015* 119 1,074,304 $21,701,0882016* 117 1,234,047 $23,203,0712017 101 827,544 $15,234,5252018 47 360,414 $7,810,753
6% of DC's annual book sales still come from three 1980s Alan Moore books, two of which they stole from him and his co-authors.
One of Karen Berger’s books is Dark Horse’s 3rd best-seller in bookstores: “Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts” with just over 14k. RIP, man.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 19 July 2019 08:13 (four years ago) link
and aim at selling your own re-re-rebooted IP only on Wednesdays
yesterday: brain genius announcing to panels at SDCC that he's mad at the collections department for proposing and executing financially successful reprint projects bcz he only wants to sell new stuff that people don't like, instead of stuff that people enjoy
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, 22 July 2019 00:45 (four years ago) link
I saw a headline about that but I didn't actually click through and read it because I think it gave me a mini-stroke.
― My nephew accidentally swalled five quarters and thee dimes. (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 July 2019 01:50 (four years ago) link
xp lol, typical
if they were at all intelligent, the main point would be to create comic plots that are easily collected, with the real success being enough demand to keep a portion of new storylines in print in collected form as new classics.
or in the case of MAD, the ability to rely on the extensive back catalog of material to print topical one-offs or prestige collections by era/topic/author. some completely obvious concept like "movie parodies of the oscar winners of X" or just shoving the Star Wars parodies out on the newsstand any time a new SW project comes out. they did exactly that in the mid/late 90s when the original movies were rereleased to theaters and I think I wore out my copy!
hell, just throw the old collections back into print. I was introduced to MAD through one of the early printings of the "Son of MAD" collections that was at my grandparents' house, probably bought by my dad or uncle. I need to hunt around, I had another paperback collection as a kid and bought a ton of issues starting with, I think, a Gremlins 2 parody
― untuned mass damper (mh), Monday, 22 July 2019 02:47 (four years ago) link
I got the digital collection of a Donald Trump thing they did a few years back to coincide with the election, and there was some decent material but it bizarrely didn't grab any deeper back catalog stuff, which definitely exists.
― untuned mass damper (mh), Monday, 22 July 2019 02:50 (four years ago) link
in the case of MAD, the ability to rely on the extensive back catalog of material to print topical one-offs or prestige collections by era/topic/author. some completely obvious concept like "movie parodies of the oscar winners of X" or just shoving the Star Wars parodies out on the newsstand any time a new SW project comes out. they did exactly that in the mid/late 90sotm completely insane that they close down the entire history of Mad in NYC, restart from scratch in Burbank with an EIC so expensive they have to lay him off a year later, and don’t have a plan around monetising the generations of goodwill around their content
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, 22 July 2019 03:25 (four years ago) link
completely insane DC
Fixed that for you.
― My nephew accidentally swalled five quarters and thee dimes. (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 July 2019 03:45 (four years ago) link
I was pondering last night after posting that -- if there was some subscription service where they'd dig up a handful of relevant comics from the whole of the run and you could view them as a daily comics type of thing, it'd be great! Stupid American aggressive posturing toward Iran in the news? Guess what, we've got decades of content! Here's a mini-collection we put together for this week.
― untuned mass damper (mh), Monday, 22 July 2019 14:39 (four years ago) link
I honestly don't know why at this point they wouldn't just offer the entire kit and caboodle up to the highest bidder. The only potential downside I can see is if an even worse company bought it.
― My nephew accidentally swalled five quarters and thee dimes. (Old Lunch), Monday, 22 July 2019 14:46 (four years ago) link
I'd settle for a high quality scan of a bunch of material well-documented and dropped on archive.org
it looks like there's one issue on there
― untuned mass damper (mh), Monday, 22 July 2019 14:54 (four years ago) link
Fwiw, they did do a huge Star Wars book back around 2007, Mad About Star Wars, that did a great job of compiling that stuff. But having said that, more of this exact type of thing would be fantastic!
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61%2B2OBkbiEL._AC_SY400_.jpg
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 22 July 2019 15:00 (four years ago) link
the highest bidder.No other bidder would be in any position to do 1/10 of what AT&T can do with it. AT&T just don’t want to do anything with it.(And obv don’t have any motivating interest in a product that is designed to teach children that corporate-controlled art is a bad thing.)
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Monday, 22 July 2019 15:02 (four years ago) link
can't believe cracked is a more viable brand than mad.
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 22 July 2019 16:28 (four years ago) link
should license to fanta honestly
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 22 July 2019 16:46 (four years ago) link
A properly done version of this, available as a digital download: https://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-MAD-Magazine-50-Years/dp/B000HKMQ64
― Vernon Locke, Tuesday, 23 July 2019 00:58 (four years ago) link
not to get sic on you here but $150 for two discs of unsearchable lo-res scans doesn't strike me as properly done
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 July 2019 01:22 (four years ago) link
a properly done version of /sic
― Vernon Locke, Tuesday, 23 July 2019 01:23 (four years ago) link
ah i think i get your meaning.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 23 July 2019 01:38 (four years ago) link
This (link), but high-rez, searchable and digital. We're on the same page, all good.
I was this shockingly old when I learned that the rest of the EC catalogue is controlled by the Gaines Family. I thought DC had the lot, and was licensing out reprints to Dark Horse, IDW, Fanta etc.
― Vernon Locke, Tuesday, 23 July 2019 02:25 (four years ago) link
Al Jaffee's on Twitter
Hello, Twitter! It's really me, the one and only Al Jaffee, here to alienate all my friends...— Al Jaffee (@og_aljaffee) September 25, 2019
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 25 September 2019 17:47 (four years ago) link
i watched some of the chris claremont documentary a few nights back and it turns out that jaffee was family friends with claremont's parents, so they came to him to help him get an internship at Mad... but he wouldn't do it because he said it was no place for a kid! So Jaffee connected Claremont with Stan Lee instead. Quoth Claremont "Once Stan found out I wouldn't have to be paid, I was in."
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 25 September 2019 19:06 (four years ago) link
*folds tweet in from both sides*
yup, that's Al
― mh, Wednesday, 25 September 2019 19:16 (four years ago) link
Didn't know that about Claremont/Jaffee, great story!
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 25 September 2019 20:22 (four years ago) link
Marvel bringing back Crazy magazine this week!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 17:50 (four years ago) link
Hold off on the one-shot, though. It's being collected in a couple months alongside a bunch of old-school material.
― Furter-Bursting Tater Squirter (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 18:07 (four years ago) link
unless his recent illness has slowed him down, Aragones has only missed one issue of Mad in forty years (...)
― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Friday, March 15, 2013 8:22 AM (six years ago)
Sergio's still on an unbroken run after missing that issue in 1967. Dick DeBartolo had been on an unbroken run since Jun 1966, but the new issue of the mostly-reprint version drops next week without him in it.
(Aragones is on 451 issues in a row, DeBartolo's streak ends at 459 issues.)
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Tuesday, 18 February 2020 22:51 (four years ago) link
Cool, Hadn't seen this thread before---here's my trib to the original, Kurtzman-edited Mad, with a link to early 50s pop culture investigator Robert Warshow's account of visit to Mad offices, with his young son Paul, who'd turned him on to thee rag (another link to email conversation saga w mark s and others, from which this sprang):https://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2019/09/re-landscape-envy-ur-mad.html
― dow, Tuesday, 18 February 2020 23:10 (four years ago) link
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, July 5, 2019 5:54 AM (seven months ago)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160729181105/http://www.savagecritic.com/retailing/the-case-against-dan-didio/
Four years.
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Saturday, 22 February 2020 01:43 (four years ago) link
It sad, he was a publishorhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxoEpVDGvPE
― Hot, Now, and Oh-So-Very Wow! (Old Lunch), Saturday, 22 February 2020 02:06 (four years ago) link
RIP Mort Drucker
There is a devastating satirical piece in MAD, it is devastating pic.twitter.com/qpFkicJBxu— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) April 10, 2020
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 10 April 2020 18:01 (four years ago) link
Superb caricaturist! we'll miss him.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 10 April 2020 18:36 (four years ago) link
https://www.madcoversite.com/ugoi-mort_drucker.htmllove that the accompanying drucker pic is a perfect drucker-ish background character
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, 12 April 2020 21:09 (four years ago) link
https://www.cbr.com/mad-magazine-al-jaffee-final-fold-in/
― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Friday, 12 June 2020 16:16 (three years ago) link
https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/final-fold-in-1591812108.jpg
https://static3.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/solved-1591812305.jpg
― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Friday, 12 June 2020 16:18 (three years ago) link
There is such a thing as a spoiler alert!
― nickn, Friday, 12 June 2020 16:20 (three years ago) link
According to the link it's a parody of Bounty Law.
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:11 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
probably upthread already but https://www.tomrichmond.com/the-tarantino-story-part-3-bounty-law/06/08/2019/
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:21 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Actually Mad is still going, sort of:
After AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018, Mad ended newsstand distribution, continuing in comic-book stores and via subscription, and slashed its new content in standard issues (save for end-of-year specials), with the regular magazine almost entirely utilising curated reprints with new covers, although minimal amounts of new content exist in each issue.I only know this because I saw a newish issue at a local comic book store the other day.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:29 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
The issue after the Bounty Law one was the last issue of new material.
(#10, because in a move typically measured and thoughtful of the Nelson / Didio era, AT&T made the entire staff redundant, abandoned the Manhattan office with iirc years left on their lease, and restarted the numbering from scratch with new Burbank hires a year before being surprised that this had somehow cost money.)
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:45 (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:46 (two years ago) link
It's crazy to me that they did that ^ .. like, did they think what Mad fans wanted was a BREAK with its glorious past? Insane.
Speaking of the past, I have to say that six issues a year of reprints sounds...... pretty good?
I also have to say that a hardback copy of brand-new spoofs of classic movies like The Thing, done by Tom Richmond and Desmond Devlin sounds..... great??
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/claptrap-movie-spoofs-in-a-classic-humorous-vein/x/27777512#/
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:54 (two years ago) link
Al Jaffee is 101!!!!!
― Otto Insurance (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 14 March 2022 13:33 (two years ago) link
*squints to see what phrase would say if I folded it*
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Monday, 14 March 2022 13:40 (two years ago) link
It was on a deep dive into Match Game during the pandemic that I discovered that Dick DeBartolo is gay and married! The news thrilled me more than I thought it would.
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Monday, 14 March 2022 13:46 (two years ago) link
s quints to see what phrase would say if I folded itI can tell you if you pay mebczA FEE IS 11
― beepy fridges (sic), Monday, 14 March 2022 15:41 (two years ago) link
I'm getting these issues now by the way and they're great. The last one was themed around dogs and pets. I'm pretty sure the fold-ins are new. They're not by Jaffee but they're terrific.
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 March 2022 15:53 (two years ago) link
There should be a collected omnibus of fold-ins that miraculously don't cause the page to deteriorate when you fold them. The fold-ins ruined all my old MADs as a kid.
My 7yo daughter has spent the pandemic era getting more and more obsessed with Beano. Kind of wish MAD was still an ongoing thing like it was in the 80s when I read it, as I think it'd be the perfect next step in her comics voyage, and would generally fit her level of cynicism.
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Monday, 14 March 2022 16:09 (two years ago) link
It's a shame, because the short-lived 'new' Mad was actually p good.
Still, there's always Viz *s
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 14 March 2022 16:14 (two years ago) link
God, she'd love Viz. Not for a couple more years though!
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Monday, 14 March 2022 18:29 (two years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/CPSBCN9.jpg
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 28 April 2022 10:46 (one year ago) link
Not directly Al's work but
The regular backpage ad from Sundazed for the latest issue of Ugly Things is a proper Al Jaffee fold-in salute. Little surprise as to what it folds into. pic.twitter.com/UB4EmZQN1Y— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) April 28, 2022
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 28 April 2022 16:27 (one year ago) link
To me, hinged feet are the apex of visual comedy.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 28 April 2022 16:34 (one year ago) link
Who did the Rogan one (and can we see it pre-fold)?
― beepy fridges (sic), Thursday, 28 April 2022 17:39 (one year ago) link
Sorry sic I failed to capture it before my children lost it somewhere.
The latest edition is A MAD LOOK AT GREED and it is excellent. Honestly I have such a blast reading these. No ads. Just like the old days. The pages are slightly slicker. There are no Don Martin comics sadly, I guess he must have retained republishing rights.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 16 June 2022 21:30 (one year ago) link
I should emphasise there are no original pieces in these editions apart from the fold-in and the cover.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 16 June 2022 21:42 (one year ago) link
I don't know if his children managed to negotiate rights away from AT&T in the last few years somehow, but as semi-discussed upthread, not having any republishing rights was the reason he quit 35 years ago
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Friday, 17 June 2022 06:19 (one year ago) link
I think Martin (and other Mad artists) retained some rights to the original paperback books they produced for Mad (or Warner Bros books), but not on the strips that appeared in the magazine itself.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 17 June 2022 07:11 (one year ago) link
in that case i don’t get it. I haven’t seen any Martin strips in the three issues I’ve gotten so far. Maybe just coincidence but he’s such a fan favourite.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 17 June 2022 07:58 (one year ago) link
Did he do strips about greed? Also remember that most of those fans are dead, and the living ones have no way of knowing that 2pp of his work from 50 years ago is in a magazine they don't know where to buy
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Saturday, 18 June 2022 06:17 (one year ago) link
harsh! I mean you could say that about everything in these current issues. And you’d probably be right. But if they’re making them they might as well get Martin in there imo.
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 18 June 2022 08:18 (one year ago) link
is there anything else in the issues being sold on the fan favourite status of its illustrator, rather than the topic, tho (I haven't seen them and I don't know if there are Martin strips about greed and I strongly agree in principle that Martin strips would likely be a good thing to have in themed grab-bag Mad compilations if they fit the theme. BUT)
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Saturday, 18 June 2022 08:23 (one year ago) link
I still recall how epochal a moment it was when Martin jumped ship for Cracked (thankfully at a time when I was regularly buying both, like any proper preadolescent of that era).
― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Saturday, 18 June 2022 15:58 (one year ago) link
sic presumably the only people buying these are the nostalgic superfans like me so your suggestion that “fan favourite” artists would be of no account to the compilers is a strange one by my lights
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 18 June 2022 16:21 (one year ago) link
Newsstand distribution is an insanely inefficient way of reaching superfans in 2022!(who are not yet dead but tbf old enough to have forgotten that they bought the three-volume HC box set of their favourite artist in 2007)Almost by definition it is only able to reach casual fans at best — how would a superfan even know what was being released, let alone where to find it? — and theming the collections on subject seems designed specifically to appeal to a general audience on top of nostalgists.
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Saturday, 18 June 2022 17:05 (one year ago) link
70th anniversary issue is out now, with much more new material than usual, including a COVID-19 gag from Sergio Aragones! Nice letter from Jordan Peele about the fake Mad cover they mocked up for Nope, and a nice letter from Weird Al about his favorite ever Al Jaffee gag. Also: a DOUBLE fold-in!
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 23 October 2022 15:36 (one year ago) link
Yeah, really nice issue with a good balance between old and new stuff, although should've been more Kurtzman Kontent. In a way it would be a good one to go out on (I think this is the last time Kuper is going to be doing new Spy v Spy material?)
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 23 October 2022 16:29 (one year ago) link
i would like to see sergio get a National Arts Medal
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 23 October 2022 22:13 (one year ago) link
Happy 102nd Birthday, Al Jaffee!
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 13 March 2023 15:35 (one year ago) link
Fold-in reveals he's only 12.
― dinnerboat, Monday, 13 March 2023 18:30 (one year ago) link
loll
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 13 March 2023 18:43 (one year ago) link
vg+
― Mark G, Monday, 13 March 2023 18:53 (one year ago) link
Haha
― Think Fast, Mr. Mojo Risin’ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 March 2023 19:40 (one year ago) link
:(
I'm very sad to report that the great Al Jaffee has died. He had celebrated his 102nd birthday just last month. An incredible legend. RIP to a giant of cartooning. pic.twitter.com/FzZk7wGebd— Tom Heintjes (@Hoganmag) April 10, 2023
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 10 April 2023 20:45 (one year ago) link
Hero.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 April 2023 21:07 (one year ago) link
And as noted on the obit thread, what a perfect followup comment to that tweet:
I will fold his obituary into thirds to reveal a totaly different, and mildly offensive, obituary.— MP (@DefaultComics) April 10, 2023
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 10 April 2023 22:30 (one year ago) link
Angles, surely.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 April 2023 22:44 (one year ago) link
God better not have any stupid questions.
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 10 April 2023 23:02 (one year ago) link
Snappy Answers To St Peter's Questions
― least said, sergio mendes (sic), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 00:48 (one year ago) link
^ already txted to an ilx0r so count it as an xp if you like
― least said, sergio mendes (sic), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 00:49 (one year ago) link