The New MAD– Four Issues In…

Issue number four of the “new” MAD magazine just hit the stands this week. So how’s our beloved rag doing since its radical move to Burbank and a whole new editorial and art staff? I guess that depends on who you ask.

Some really old school MAD aficionados are not too pleased with the new direction of the magazine. I’ve read comments about how this “isn’t MAD” and that certain articles don’t have the “MAD voice”. I’ve even seen the obligatory “Bill Gaines must be rolling in his grave” comments (that’s ridiculous… Bill was cremated, so at worst he’s billowing in his urn). Anytime you take something that hasn’t changed much in over 60 years and make some major changes, you are going to get that sort of thing from a hardcore demographic.

On the other hand, lately MAD has been getting a lot of positive attention on social media and in the mainstream press. MAD‘s social media presence went from tepid to torrid with very active website, Twitter, Facebook, and Instragram feeds, plus a new Snapchat presence (search for “MAD Mag” in Snapchat), a Twitch channel, and a promised-but-not-yet-delivered podcast. A larger and younger audience is suddenly becoming aware of MAD, and frankly that has been the whole idea.

Lets’ face it, MAD was not going to continue much longer without gaining a new audience and appealing to the next generation of fans and readers. That’s what makes the objections of the old school MAD readers unfortunate but probably necessary. If MAD wanted to really make that group happy, they could just go back to printing the magazine in black and white on shitty paper, and throw in more Spiro Agnew jokes. Then when their readership had dwindled down to a handful of nonagenarians in some assisted living complexes MAD would just fade away… and the old school crowd would die satisfied along with the magazine. I can’t believe anyone would want to see that. Certainly the last person who would want to would be Bill Gaines. He’d want to see MAD go on and his Usual Gang of Idiots keep working.

Contrary to the idea that the new MAD staff are reinventing the wheel with little regard for tradition, the “new” MAD is actually doing a lot of things that are real throwbacks to the old days of the magazine, but with new twists. For example in issue four, the parody I drew features not a parody version but a real character/person in Svengoolie, which harkens back to the days of the “Bob and Ray” features of the late 50’s/early 60’s. Likewise articles written by celebrity humorists like Maria Bamford and Brian Posehn mirror similar past bylines by the likes of Andy Griffith, Ernie Kovacs, Stan Freberg, Sid Caesar, Chevy Chase, Jean Sheperd and a number of others dating back to the 60’s.

Even stuff that seems definitely different and new is more of a rethinking of previous MAD staples. The “Potrzebie Comics” section is a foray into multiple page humor comics stories in the same vein as “Monroe” was back in the 90’s/2000’s, and really just an expansion of the “The Strip Club” concept of recent years. Otherwise you’ll find a lot of the same sort of thing you’ve always found in MAD: one to four page gag articles, movie and TV parodies, Spy vs Spy, “A MAD Look at” and Sergio’s marginals, the Fold-In, etc. It’s just that in many cases the subjects, humor, and visuals are coming from a more current perspective via younger creators.

One thing that is very different from the new MAD is their souped up social media presence, and how they are handling it. MAD now tweets multiple gags and jokes per day, and publish original and timely cartoons and illustrated gags on their website and Facebook. I like this, as it is playing to their strengths and what makes them different from the endless lazy memes that circulate all day every day. It’s the art that makes them different. We are seeing far less Photoshopped content and seeing a lot more cartooning online from MAD. They need to play to what makes them unique.

Most encouraging is the kind of attention a feature like “The Ghastlygun Tinies” is getting the magazine. Of course MAD has never been only booger and fart jokes, there has always been a lot of sophisticated satire and deep-thinking parody mixed in among the juvenile humor. Satire isn’t always full of laughs, and the occasional article like this shows that. This one is particularly well done and poignant, and getting major attention as a result. This past weekend at NYCC a 30-something lady came up to my booth and asked if I had a copy of #4 for sale. I did not, but she told me she hadn’t picked up a MAD in 20 years but after seeing social media coverage of “The Ghastlygun Tinies” she immediately subscribed.

Mostly what’s different in the new MAD is the updated visual look of the publication and a more modern, younger sensibility to the humor. MAD should reflect the times, and the vernacular and “voice” of today is different than it was in the 90’s, or 80’s, or the 60’s. MAD needs to bring its approach to that audience by speaking their language. Today’s comedy and satire is more visceral and raw than it was back in the day. That doesn’t mean it can’t also be smart and sophisticated, but it does need to speak to a modern audience.

If the whole reason for the big move out west, the hiring of a brand-new staff full that skews much younger and diverse, the bringing in of younger talent, and a revamp of the visual look of the magazine was so it appealed and got noticed by a new generation of readers (and it was), I think the new staff is kicking ass and things are progressing nicely in that regard.

Maybe a few more Agnew jokes, though.

tl;dr: How’s the new MAD doing? Good, thanks.