I discovered MAD Magazine in the early ‘80s, nearly three decades into its existence.
At the time, the magazine section at the Port Hawkesbury Sobeys location was kitty-corner to the bakery section, so I still recall the scent of freshly baked bread as I think of my first encounters with Alfred E. Neuman, Spy Vs. Spy, the inside-back-cover Fold-Ins, and those jam-packed movie and TV parodies.
I would buy my first issue of MAD at the same Sobeys location midway through the ninth grade, setting off a 33-year obsession that got a severe jolt earlier this month.
DC Entertainment, which obtained the rights to MAD in 1992, has confirmed that MAD will stop publishing original material and concentrate on reprinted material from its 67-year-old library after this December’s issue. That will also be the last MAD available on newsstands, as DC is restricting sales to such direct-market distributors as comic shops, as well as paid subscriptions.
When the news broke, an outpouring of media coverage, commentary and general wistfulness flowed onto TV, radio, and the Web. Current and former MAD contributors received their airtime, inside and outside of the U.S. – long-running Spy Vs. Spy writer-artist Peter Kuper was the second interview on the July 4 edition of CBC Radio One’s As It Happens, moments after The World At Six concluded with a lengthy story about the forthcoming MAD changes.
Since my personal love of MAD was a part of my youth but also lasted well into my adult life, my reaction was twofold.
The former kid-by-the-Sobeys-bakery is lamenting that nobody will stumble upon MAD at a newsstand in the 2020s, and the adult whose world is crippled by political corruption, overhyped pop-culture phenomena and a global trend towards excess is genuinely saddened at the weakening of MAD’s satirical voice.
But amid the flow of eulogies from the magazine’s many artists and writers – the “Usual Gang of Idiots” – and sad words by everybody from “Weird Al” Yankovic (a childhood fan who served as MAD’s first-ever Guest Editor four years ago) to The Simpsons and The Incredibles producer Brad Bird, something wonderful happened.
The ground shifted. Almost overnight, the narrative moved from “RIP MAD Magazine” to “Save MAD Magazine.”
Three celebrities with a plethora of Twitter followers – Star Wars legend Mark Hamill, author/comedian John Hodgman, and actor/comedian/host-of-everything Neil Patrick Harris – began lobbying for DC to reconsider its MAD moves and keep the original content coming. A petition went up on Change.org, resulting in 3,100 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
Even the tone from within the MAD camp suddenly changed. Suzy Hutchison, who has served as art director since MAD moved from its long-time New York City base to DC’s California offices in early 2018, took to Facebook and encouraged fans to “get vocal and demand more MADness.”
Artist Tom Richmond, who has emerged as MAD’s premier movie and TV parody-illustrator as well as one of the magazine’s most vocal ambassadors over his 19 years with MAD, also encouraged the public to speak with their wallets, their social-media posts and their voices, sagely noting that “MAD is a valuable brand for DC, and anything that makes it more valuable will get some attention.”
If a reversal of fortune happens, it wouldn’t be the first time that DC has drastically scaled back MAD only to give it a reprieve of sorts. Shortly before MAD’s 500th issue hit the stands in 2009, DC laid off several editorial staff members and cut the magazine’s publication schedule from monthly to quarterly. But a year later, MAD reappeared as a bi-monthly and continued to deliver the sharp satire and arresting images that have been hallmarks of The Usual Gang of Idiots for decades.
They’re still there today, and they’re still making waves. MAD received international acclaim last fall when it published a four-page article on school shootings, “The Ghastlygun Tinies,” a reworking of Edward Gorey’s 1963 classic “The Gashlycrumb Tinies.” Suddenly media outlets as diverse as The New York Times, CBS, NPR and The A.V. Club were talking up MAD. “The Ghastlygun Tinies” went on to win a Will Eisner Award, the comic equivalent of the Oscars.
Simply put, MAD deserves another chance. Never mind the fact that it’s printed on super-calendared paper (do we know anybody around the Strait area that produces super-calendared paper, perchance?).
Ours is a world that is increasingly hyper-sensitive to political and social commentary – Michael de Adder, who I spotlighted in last week’s column, is just one of a handful of political cartoonists that have been let go across North America over the past two years. Losing MAD would wave another white flag in the faces of greed, power, corruption, and flat-out stupidity.
Don’t do it, DC.
Don’t go away, MAD.