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Mad Magazine #CANCELLED

Started by Wet Blanket, July 04, 2019, 09:31:15 AM

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Wet Blanket

Quite literally. Weird Al broke the news on twitter that the magazine is being shelved after 67 years.

Anyone bothered? I used to love it as a kid, but it had become a bit of a byword for lame humour even then.

Although it could still have some bite: this was really good from a recent issue: 


Small Man Big Horse

Oddly enough Mrs SMBH bought me that issue last year for Christmas, mainly as it had three pages featuring Maria Bamford, and I did like it a fair deal and was impressed by how funny some of it was. It wasn't good enough to make me consider buying it on a regular basis, but despite that it does feel a real shame that such a comedic institution is coming to an end.

Danger Man

I loved MAD magazine as a child and especially loved the early issues with the likes of Will Elder but I'm shocked it's come to an end because I assumed it had finished decades ago.

Maybe they can reinvent themselves on the internet like Cracked magazine did.

Tony Tony Tony

Sad to hear this as a part of my teenage years is going west.

I will pay tribute with a fairly lame joke...

I can't believe Mad magazine is folding.

NoSleep

Blimey, Al Jaffee (98) has outlived the magazine! I wonder what he'll do for his retirement?

Ambient Sheep

Funnily enough I bought it for the first time in YEARS only last month.  Went into a new little local grocery store to pick up some apples only to find that they had a surprisingly large magazine rack for these times, with a whole host of unusual titles (e.g. they also had Nexus) including MAD.

Confusingly numbered "No. 7 JUN 2019" (which some Wikipedia research revealed was because after 65 years and 550 issues they relocated to the West Coast at the end of 2017 with a new editorial team and restarted at #1) it was obviously a rather different beast, but still a good read and I thoroughly intended to go back and keep buying it, especially at the frankly ludicrous price of just £3.25 (odd, considering the U.S. cover price was $5.99).

Mass shootings do seem to be a regular, er, target: the MAD Fold-In in that issue was a dig at them too.




Wikipedia confirms the news:

QuoteOn July 3, 2019, it was announced that Mad would no longer be sold on newsstands by the end of the year; additionally, outside of end-of-year review issues, future issues would no longer feature new content, with the magazine instead relying on classic content from the publication's 67-year history.

citing the following article:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/mad-magazine-effectively-close-67-years-1222636

QuoteSources tell THR that after issue 9 [in August], MAD will no longer be sold on newsstands and will only be available through comic book shops as well as mailed to subscribers. After issue 10, there will no longer be new content in subsequent issues save for the end-of-year specials (those will be all-new). Beginning with issue 11, the magazine will only feature previously published content — classic and best-of nostalgic fare — from its massive fault [sic] of the past 67 years. DC, however, will also continue to publish MAD books and special collections.

It's worth clicking through though just for the Trump cover they show.




More than once, recently, I've looked back and realised what a big influence MAD was on me.

I think it probably taught me silliness (Don Martin) and that it was OK to be anti-establishment.  It was fascinating to read last month in Wikipedia's excellent History and Influence sections that Al Feldstein (editor) was a staunch Democrat, whereas William M. Gaines (publisher) was a staunch Republican, but they got on due to their mutual loathing of the powers that be of all shades.

Here's an excellent bit from Wikipedia's Influence section:

QuoteIn 1994, Brian Siano in The Humanist discussed the effect of Mad on that segment of people already disaffected from society:

For the smarter kids of two generations, Mad was a revelation: it was the first to tell us that the toys we were being sold were garbage, our teachers were phonies, our leaders were fools, our religious counselors were hypocrites, and even our parents were lying to us about damn near everything. An entire generation had William Gaines for a godfather: this same generation later went on to give us the sexual revolution, the environmental movement, the peace movement, greater freedom in artistic expression, and a host of other goodies. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Pulitzer Prize-winning art comics maven Art Spiegelman said, "The message Mad had in general is, 'The media is lying to you, and we are part of the media.' It was basically ... 'Think for yourselves, kids.'" William Gaines offered his own view: when asked to cite Mad's philosophy, his boisterous answer was, "We must never stop reminding the reader what little value they get for their money!"

Indeed, one of the spin-off paperback books, MADvertising, I realised about 20 years ago, was an absolutely excellent primer on, and exposé of, how advertising and marketing conspire to sell you stuff you don't really need and how they lie to you without actually breaking the law.  Revealed so many tricks of the trade.  It was only when I started living with people who clearly had little idea of how it all works that I stopped to think "Hmmm, how did *I* get to know all about this?" and then I realised... from reading MADvertising aged 10.  It should be updated and EVERYONE made to read it at school.

As well as several paperbacks, I bought the magazine regularly throughout the late 70s and early 80s before it seemed to gently fade from the newsstands.  I think the last time I picked one up before now was some time in the 90s; like Danger Man had, I'd assumed it had quietly died years ago (I was certainly aware of the British edition ending -- in 1994, apparently -- as the last few I'd picked up were purely American).

I was so pleased to see it back.  But now it's (mostly) gone.

RIP Alfred E. Neumann.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: NoSleep on July 04, 2019, 11:47:07 AM
Blimey, Al Jaffee (98) has outlived the magazine! I wonder what he'll do for his retirement?

The copy I picked up still seemed to have fresh artwork by Sergio Aragonés -- not just "Drawn-Out Dramas" in the margins but proper strips as well.  Still going strong at 81.


EDIT: Hilarious anecdote from Wiki:

QuoteAfter working odd jobs around the city, Aragonés went to Mad's offices on Madison Avenue hoping to sell some of his cartoons. "I didn't think I had anything that belonged in Mad," said Aragonés. "I didn't have any satire. I didn't have any articles. But everybody was telling me, 'Oh, you should go to Mad."

Since his knowledge of English was not very extensive, he asked for the only Mad artist he knew of that spoke Spanish, Cuban-born artist Antonio Prohías, creator of the comic strip "Spy vs. Spy". Aragonés hoped Prohías could serve as an interpreter between him and the Mad editors. According to Aragonés, this proved to be a mistake, since Prohías knew even less English than him.

Prohías did receive Aragonés very enthusiastically and, with difficulty, introduced the young artist to the Mad editors as "Sergio, my brother from Mexico," temporarily leading to even further confusion, as the Mad editors thought he was "Sergio Prohías."

daf

#7
Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 04, 2019, 12:01:57 PM
(Don Martin)

Joe Fonebone and his flat flappy toecaps!

(I remember Dannies Baker & Kelly cracking up describing the "fill-it - fill-oot" 'sound effects' that would accompany the walk)

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: daf on July 04, 2019, 12:09:38 PMJoe Fonebone and his flat flappy toecaps!

Oh totally.

The Don Martin Steps Out! and The MAD Adventures of Captain Klutz paperbacks were two of my most prized possessions as a child.  I dearly wanted to buy more but couldn't find them anywhere.

Some lunaticMADman has catalogued over 1200 Don Martin sound effects here.  He doesn't seem to cover the paperbacks though, so some of the best ones are missing.

I still come out with some similar words occasionally, although a lot less than I did.

However, it's undeniable that Don Martin was the reason why I call those grey rubber things with a Y-connection, that you stick onto your bathroom taps in order to make a low-cost shower, a "SCLOITCH". :-D


Wet Blanket

FA-GROON! Klubble-klubble! Is still my go-to noise for a building collapse.

I'm amazed Mad survived the death of William M Gaines. He was the guy maintaining its idiosyncrasies like the no-ads rule, the black and white and shitty paper stock. The mag's arguably been dying a slow death for 20 odd years as corporate owners took over and tried to force it into the mainstream.

samadriel

'Get me Kaputnik and Fonebone. I want to see their drawings for "New Kids on the Blecch!"'

gilbertharding

Shame - but I only ever saw it in the kind of fly-blown seaside sweetshops where they just used to have ALL the magazines, including dozens of back issues.

My favourite cover was this one:



You can't see Alfred's face, but you know he's all like "Me worry?"

No-one here had any clue about Summer Camps, or baseball, or half the tv shows they 'satirised' - but Spy vs Spy, and Don Marten were universal.

60c Cheap.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Danger Man on July 04, 2019, 12:44:37 PM
Potrzebie

Funnily enough, that new issue I have contains a spoof comic within a comic, whose title is "Potzrebie Comics", with a fake stamp on it saying "Avoided by the Comics Code Authority"

Wet Blanket

Quote from: gilbertharding on July 04, 2019, 01:13:34 PM
No-one here had any clue about Summer Camps, or baseball, or half the tv shows they 'satirised' - but Spy vs Spy, and Don Marten were universal.

The British edition would frequently replace US references with unlikely local ones, so there'd be a Mort Drucker illustration of, say, Art Fleming but in the speech bubble called Terry Wogan in a slightly mis-matched font.

Ambient Sheep

The really silly thing is that sometimes they did that even when nobody in the UK could have failed to know who the US celebrity was!

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: gilbertharding on July 04, 2019, 01:13:34 PMMy favourite cover was this one:


I have that somewhere.  As you imply, not a great issue, otherwise speaking.

Too many to remember to pick an absolute favourite, but one of them was this:



Although I think the British one sensibly said "World" not "Country".

More on this issue here, including the inside strips:
https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2012/12/14/rip-n-joseph-woodland

We didn't really get barcodes over here for another few years, so that was my first-ever exposure to them.

Glebe

Weirdly, it tried to do an overhaul and 'relaunch' not long ago (like it reset back to issue #1).

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Glebe on July 04, 2019, 01:46:06 PM
Weirdly, it tried to do an overhaul and 'relaunch' not long ago (like it reset back to issue #1).

*cough*

Yeah I know, it was a long post.  But second para...

Tony Tony Tony

Whilst attempting to find out what the "E' stands for in Alfred E Neuman I happened across this bizarre clip of Fred Astaire dancing as the Mad frontmanhttps://youtu.be/7uxyg1aUaoI

Glebe

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 04, 2019, 01:48:11 PM*cough*

Yeah I know, it was a long post.  But second para...

Awight, soz.

My parents were fans, my Dad had a little book of Sergio Aragonés cartoons which absolutely fascinated me as a kid, trying to figure out the jokes and examining all the little details. Mort Drucker's work was fabulous. I think maybe it just lost it's magic over the years and became a bit by-the-numbers.

Uncle TechTip

It was a great post fully read by me Sheepy, thanks. MAD was my introduction to American culture, whilst all the other lads at school were fans of Todd McFarlane or Brian Bolland, I was all Mort Drucker and Sergio Aragones. His work was emblematic of the mag's richness. I loved tracking down all the jokes and lines.

Pauline Walnuts

I used to love those 70s Mads you could pick up dead cheap back in the err 80s.

I loved Don Martin, well, the whole of lot of 'em really.

In fact my favourite joke of all time was a University Proffesor telling his hippy student that there were two phrases you should never use in an essay, one of them is 'Too groovy, and the other is far out, man.'

Student: "And like what are the phrases?"

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 04, 2019, 12:04:21 PM
The copy I picked up still seemed to have fresh artwork by Sergio Aragonés -- not just "Drawn-Out Dramas" in the margins but proper strips as well.  Still going strong at 81.

He contributed four pages to the issue I mentioned I had above, and his art is still amazing. I've been a big fan of his since my teenage years when I loved the glorious idiocy of Groo The Wanderer, so I'm really glad he's still working and producing such great stuff.

Danger Man

I think I must have read all the Mad books as a child including some very odd ones like Dave Berg looks at God which was basically Dave Berg saying how devout he was with a few cartoons chucked in.

Part of a series


Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on July 04, 2019, 12:35:43 PMHowever, it's undeniable that Don Martin was the reason why I call those grey rubber things with a Y-connection, that you stick onto your bathroom taps in order to make a low-cost shower, a "SCLOITCH". :-D

The more I think about this, the weirder it gets, because thinking about it, the sound really isn't like "SCLOITCH!", more like "FWIMP!".  The former is just the sound I think it should make, rather than the sound it actually does.

But, somehow, saying something like "Oh ffs hunny, the fwimp's come apart, we need to buy a new one" just doesn't have the same ring to it.  Happily it's unlikely to be needed now. #90sproblems #thankgodforelectricshowers

kngen



The Simpsons perfectly mirroring my childhood.

People, including my parents, wonder why I have such an obsession with Nixon and Watergate even though I was barely two years old when he resigned. A Mad Compendium given to me a few years later is why. Even the Don Martin sound effects being discussed are sending me into a Proustian reverie.

Think I've still got the board game somewhere, too.

ajsmith2

Quote from: kngen on July 04, 2019, 03:08:57 PM


The Simpsons perfectly mirroring my childhood.

People, including my parents, wonder why I have such an obsession with Nixon and Watergate even though I was barely two years old when he resigned. A Mad Compendium given to me a few years later is why. Even the Don Martin sound effects being discussed are sending me into a Proustian reverie.

Think I've still got the board game somewhere, too.

I wonder if that's supposed to be Punch magazine in the background below Cracked there, or is it wishful thinking to imagine that that earlier British humour publication would register with the Simpsons crew?

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: ajsmith2 on July 04, 2019, 03:14:09 PM
I wonder if that's supposed to be Punch magazine in the background below Cracked there, or is it wishful thinking to imagine that that earlier British humour publication would register with the Simpsons crew?

Blimey!  I'd be surprised, but it IS the right typeface...

gilbertharding

It's also a nice parallel to the fact that I was exposed as a quite small child to Punch magazine from being left in the library on a Saturday morning, or twice a year in the dentist's waiting room. The world of small men behind enormous desks, or stuck on desert islands, Libby Purves and Miles Kington cracking wise about Norman St John Stevas and Tony Wedgewood Benn is almost as evocative of a 70s childhood as the smell of Players No 6 smoke mixed with Wrigleys spearmint gum on the top deck of a Bristol VR.