MAD about LIFE

From The Life Magazine 2011 Photo Blog Award Winners:

MAD magazine has been called revolutionary, subversive, surreal, hilarious, and a total waste of time. (The latter by its own editors). That a single publication could fill all of those roles for millions of readers, and thrive, across six decades says a lot about both the human appetite for satire and the unique vision of MAD‘s founder, William Gaines. Here, on the occasion of MAD launching its first-ever blog, Theidiotical.com, MAD‘s editor for the past 25 years, John Ficarra, shares some personal photographs of — and lively stories about — Bill Gaines; the magazine’s happily chaotic early years; and the writers and illustrators (a.k.a, “the usual gang of idiots”) who have kept MAD relevant and irreverent since the days when Harry Truman was president.