Monday MADness: Final MAD Stats

I received my comp copies of MAD #16 in the mail the other day. The issue should start showing up in subscriber’s mailboxes in the next week or two, and will be in comic book stores in early October. I won’t do my “contents” post until the issue is officially released, but I can share that this issue has some new material in it, including a new Spy vs. Spy by Peter Kuper, a two page Tom Bunk masterpiece, a two pager by Sergio Aragonés and a fold-in by Johnny Sampson. That’s also a new cover by Bob Lizarraga.

What it does not contain is anything by me, not even reprint material.

This will be the first issue of MAD since #494 (Oct 2008) without a new piece by me in it. That’s a run of 12 years with my work in every issue. My first piece appeared in MAD #399 in Oct of 2000, so it’s been a full 20 years of my being one of the “Usual Gang of Idiots”. In the grand scheme of all things MAD, that’s a drop in the bucket, but it was a significant part of my life for two decades.

Barring maybe a cover assignment sometime, here are my final stats as a MAD contributor:

• Number of Issues: 142 (30th most all time)
• Longest consecutive streak: 71 issues (494-present, 17th most all time)
• Total number of pages: 678
• Movie Parodies: 46 (284 pages)
• TV Parodies: 43 (238 pages)
• Other Features: 71 (156)
• Most articles with a single writer: Desmond Devlin (44)
• Covers: 3
• Most pages in a single issue: 16 (MAD #1. Jun 2018)

Thanks to Mike Slaubaugh‘s MAD Lists website for some of those stats.

If this seems like a pity bag post it’s not. I had a long run with MAD and now that it’s over I felt I needed to put a wrap on things. As I’ve written here before I feel very lucky not to just have been a part of what is inarguably one of the biggest, most influential publications in American pop culture history, but I was part of it during a time when it was still the MAD magazine everyone knew and loved, with a New York staff that was part of the classic Bill Gaines era.

So. what’s next? Look for a big announcement from me and MAD writer Desmond Devlin early next week.