More On The Loss Of Mad Magazine

Mad Magazine has been in my mind lately as it recently stopped publication. It's too bad but that is the fallout from the death of magazines that has been occurring for about ten years now. Online is where to be. It's unfortunate there can't be room for both.

National Geographic, Starlog, Mad Magazine, Life, Time, were all over my place as a kid. Plus all those great National Enquirer or Weekly World News which itself was a trip. I also got many a oversized black and white Conan magazine. I think my Dad liked to read those ones too so it was always accepted when you threw it on the pile at the gas station.

But Mad Magazine was special. The commentary was special. The humor was special and the insight to the human animal was spot on. The satire of current events could be lame but it often hit it target with biting sarcasm and tasteless comparisons. Even if we didn't always understand the joke, we laughed at the joke.

The special features were all interesting and got funnier the more often you read them. It's like the magazine didn't expect you to get it the first time. They could wait until you read it three or for more times because you totally got the point.

And that is what Mad magazine was all about, making a point. And it employed the best visual satirists in the business to do it. Each style unique, but each style focused on the joke or bit or point the cartoonist was trying to make. And at Mad, these great artists have the freedom to push the envelope a little.

Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions hones my snarky humor to a fine edge. I was always the one with a smart ass remark to some authority figure and I owe my gift on those paperback books.400 pages of situations to goof on.

Spy Vs Spy was also a popular strip for decades. I have this great collection of their best gags and MAD TV created animated bumbers of the strip. You can see them collected below.

 

 

 

Cracked and Crazy were poor copies of MAD that most kids read under protest. They were so obvious as to be boring and there is nothing sadder than obvious comedy in a comedy magazine.

 

 

 

(Click to enlarge)