Sunday Mailbag- Is MAD Dead?
Q: Now that MAD is basically a reprint publication, do you consider it dead?
A: I would not say “dead”. I would say it’s on life-support.
First let’s dispel the persistent rumor that MAD is no longer being published. MAD still publishes bi-monthly, although it is no longer on news stands and the only way for you to get it is either in comic book shops, via mail subscription or digitally on Apple iBooks, ComiXology, Google Books and ReadDC.
Yes, MAD is now almost entirely classic material. It will always have a new cover, and a new Fold-In by Johnny Sampson, but other than the occasional special new piece in the magazine the rest of it will be reprints from MAD‘s 68 year history. I guess it’s up to you if you think the reprint material is worth the subscription (or cover) price.
One thing I will say is that MAD Art Director/Editor/Grand Poobah Suzy Hutchinson does a great job of curating the classic material around an issue theme, and has been picking pieces that have not been reprinted to death in other collections and books. MAD has published some of the greatest cartooning and satire ever seen in print, and getting a chance to see and enjoy it again is not insubstantial. These issues are full of the work of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Wally Wood, Will Elder, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, Angelo Torres, George Woodbridge, Paul Coker Jr.,… the list goes on and on. Yes, they are reprints but if it’s new to you, it’s new. I would HOPE that some younger readers get to see and know the work of these masters this way, if MAD has any young readers anymore.
Writer Extraordinaire Mark Evanier, no slouch when it comes to understanding the history and business of comics, seems to think MAD is just in a holding pattern for now, and that eventually DC will decide they need to do something with the property and will renew efforts on it. I tend to think the same. At some point new people will be brought onboard with new ideas, and MAD remains a valuable brand. They’ll want to do something with it. Whether whatever they do will work or not remains to be seen. The humorous print biz is a tough one these days.
In the meantime I’m still a subscriber. Maybe the jokes and subject matter are dated in some of the pieces they print, but the art is timeless.
Thanks to Bob Sillivan for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!
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Tom, I’ve been reading Mad since Easter morning 1979. I still subscribe to Mad Magazine these days. I really appreciate the efforts that Suzy does to print older material that we may not have seen before. I also enjoy some of the new material, as well. This is what I think: There should be some classic material reprinted like The lighter Side of.. by Dave Berg, Spy Vs Spy and Duck Edwing (I suspect that Don Martin’s material won’t be reprinted due to the battle Mad had with him). And some new material could be printed by the new artists like Johnny Sampson. a familiar pattern should be in place as well. No political humor should be present for the moment. Even I thought there was bit too much of Trump in Mad.
I certainly hope that Mad can survive as a magazine a bit longer. I really enjoy getting Mad on a bi-monthly basis. Seeing the reprinted material allows me the ability to not touch the older issues in my collection as well.
While we may be missing the annual 20 events of the year, there really hasn’t been much to satire, realy,
Tom, I look forward to 2021,, especially November 2021 when Claptrap comes out. I’m proud to support the project, too.
So, no, I don’t see Mad Magazine as being dead. It’ll be around a long time. I’m just glad Mad went up from 4 issues to 6 issues a year. Now, if only Mad could go back up to 8 issues a year.
I’ve been reading MAD since its heyday(peak copies sold) in 1973. OMG that’s almost 50 years. Things go in cycles. This pandemic didn’t help,either. Even the LP made a comeback for music fans.I’ll take MAD in any form-print that is.
@Andreas Ulanowsky Or back to 12 issues a year like they did from 1997-2009. Yes, I consider most of that era’s material to be mostly “quantity over quality,” but they still featured classic artists like Mort Drucker and Angelo Torres, and brought Mr. Richmond here, who is a PHENOMENAL illustrator, on board. As much as I love MAD and would love to see that much new content. The sad truth is, though, that it’s hard and expensive enough to publish a 56-page print magazine bi-monthly in these times (especially NOW during COVID), and they could never pull off 8 issues, never mind 12 issues a year with even 48 pages like they used to do, although I doubt it would be difficult in terms of getting additional writers and artists on board, as I’m sure it’s basically everyone in those fields’ #1 dream to work for MAD Magazine. But maybe with all this reprinted content and not much effort required to produce an issue, MAD could go back to 8 or even 12 issues a year more easily, at least until they switch back to mostly, if not entirely, original content (I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing a little classic Jack Davis or George Woodbridge once in a while, kind of like what they did with The MAD Vault).