Mad Magazine

[Justin]

Who else read Mad Magazine in their youth? Remember SPY VS. SPY? And of course what about Cracked?

 

[RickR]

Oh man, yes.  I still have a bunch of the old 80's Mad Magazines (and books).  I rescued them from my parents' garage when we sold the place.  And I have that "last" issue too.  It was very sad to see it stop publishing. 

[Justin]

@RickR It looks like they're still "kind of" publishing? I can't figure it out 🤔

 

https://subscriptions.dccomics.com/mad

https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2022/09/20/celebrate-mad-magazines-70th-anniversary-october-4-with-celebrities-and-the-usual

[RickR]

As I understand it, they are making magazines with çontent from the past to fulfill subscriptions. 

[Video 61]

2 hours ago, RickR said:

As I understand it, they are making magazines with çontent from the past to fulfill subscriptions. 

thats very sad. comic books used to be a big thing in this country

[RickR]

11 minutes ago, Video 61 said:

thats very sad. comic books used to be a big thing in this country

It is sad.  But the comic book industry is still thriving.  Magazines are not, unfortunately.  I hope that if people still enjoy magazines that are still active, they still buy or subscribe.  That's the only way they will survive. 

I remember that right before MAD went kaput, they were selling subscriptions at a very discounted rate.  I know a bunch of people that bought, and I almost did as well. 

I think in their case a lot of the "old-guard" staff retired or passed away, and it was probably difficult to replace them with people who had the same passion for that medium. 

 

 

 

 

[RickR]

Here is some interesting info from the Wikipedia entry for MAD:

Throughout the years, Mad remained a unique mix of adolescent silliness and political humor. In November 2017, Rolling Stone wrote that "operating under the cover of barf jokes, Mad has become America’s best political satire magazine."[16] Nevertheless, Mad ended its 65-year run in New York City at the end of 2017 with issue No. 550 (cover-dated April 2018),[17][18] in preparation for the relocation of its offices to DC Entertainment's headquarters in Burbank, California.[18][19] None of Mad's veteran New York staff made the move, resulting in a change in editorial leadership, tone, and art direction. More than a hundred new names made their Mad debuts, while fewer than ten of Mad's recurring artists and writers remained regular contributors.[20] The first California issue of Mad was renumbered as "#1." Bill Morrison was named in June 2017 to succeed Ficarra in January 2018.[18][21]

AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018.[22] Morrison exited Mad by March 2019, during a time of layoffs and restructuring at DC Entertainment.[23][24] After issue No. 10 (Dec. 2019) of the new Burbank edition, Mad began to consist almost entirely of curated reprints with new covers and fold-ins, with the exception of year-end specials and minimal amounts of new content. Distribution to newsstands stopped, with the magazine becoming available only through comic-book shops and by subscription.[25][26]

In 2021, a spinoff made for pop culture parodies respectively named Claptrap was born

[- Ω -]

I used buy Mad Magazine in the third and fourth grades, but then a friend introduced me to National Lampoon and I never went back.

[Justin]

4 hours ago, RickR said:

AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018.

Funny to think how many of our conversations on this site ultimately come down to Warner's business dealings.