Sunday Mailbag- Submitting to MAD?

Q: You’ve previously described pretty thoroughly how to submit work to MAD – originally via snail mail, then through MAD‘s official submissions page. Now that MAD is under new management, is the submission process different as well? (The submissions page is still there, but it hasn’t been updated since the rebrand. It still has stuff about the Fundalini pages etc. in it, and as they don’t reply to rejected submissions there’s no way to tell if it’s even still working or not.)

A: I visited the MAD offices while I was in LA last Monday, and put this question to MAD art director Suzy Hutchinson. She told me that even though it’s not been recently updated the submissions page still technically works, but there is no one who is dedicated to monitor it so it’s not the best way to submit work these days. The two best methods are:

Snail mail: it’s old fashioned but this method guarantees the envelope with your artwork will be put on Suzy’s desk (or in the case of writing submissions on whichever editor you send it to’s desk), and it will get opened and looked at. Frankly it also shows you aren’t a lazy bum who can’t be bothered to print up some art, package it up with a cover letter and address and stamp an envelope. Anyway no one filters mail coming to the staff (other than the bomb sniffing dogs anyway), so you know it’s going to be seen by the person you want to see it. Here’s the address:

Suzy Hutchinson, Art Director
MAD Magazine
2900 W. Alameda Ave.
Burbank, CA 91505

Obviously that’s for art submissions. Substitute an editor’s name for Suzy’s for writing submissions. I don’t know who edits what type of material so it’s a big of a guessing game there, but you have your choice between Senior Editor Dan Telfer, Editor Allie Goertz, Assistant Editor Casey Boyd or VP/Executive Editor Bill Morrison.

Email: If you just cannot bring yourself to do anything but attach files and press send, then send your art and writing submissions to submissions@madmagazine.com. Since it is not being addressed to someone directly, you have to rely on it being passed on to the right somebody. I’m told it pretty reliably is, but I would BY FAR recommend the snail mail route.

Thanks to Harry Gold 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!