MAD Magazine to Cease Publication

comic book / dc ^ | 07/04/19 | RUSS BURLINGAME

[P.O.E.]

MAD Magazine will cease publication later this year, according to reports. Blogger Jedidiah Leland reportedly discovered the news after a MAD editor confessed to the magazine's doom in a Facebook group, and shortly thereafter, cartoonist Ruben Bolling seemed to confirm the report on Twitter. Of course, Bolling is not a MAD cartoonist (although he did have work published in it in 2005), so he may have been simply responding to the growing volume of responses to the Leland report.

[P.O.E.]

My parents always told me that reading MAD magazine would rot my brain. And they were right. Thank goodness.

Politics aside, many fond childhood memories of the irreverent humor, song parodies, artists, etc.

[RobertoinAL]

Just don’t make fun of Uncle Frebish’s nose!

[a fool in paradise]

MAD is antithetical to the Leftist corporate dogmatic power over public perception.

They exposed hypocrisy and Mad Men media marketing tricks and claims.

Bill Gaines refused to take advertising in MAD Magazine for decades saying it wouldn’t be right to run a parody ad of Coca-Cola and then run a sponsored ad by Pepsi.

Warner Brothers owns MAD and did take ads after Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein passed away.

How are the international editions of MAD doing? For decades other countries had their own editions with a mix of foreign and domestic content.

[ObozoMustGo2012]

I was a huge fan of MAD growing up. I still have my stacks of mags and paperbacks.

I subscribed again a few years ago and EVERY issue was a Trump bash-fest. I didnt even read one page of them.

[a fool in paradise]

When Democrat Veep hopeful Sen. Estes Keffauver targeted Bill Gaines' EC Comics with congressional hearings here was his response:

[a fool in paradise]

There was a time when political humor took on all sides with equal abandon. MAD and the tv equivalent (Laugh-In) did it in the 60s. National Lampoon (magazine and pre-SNL radio show) did it in the 70s.

The loony Left was savaged in National Lampoon. Militancy, despotism, knee-jerk Marxism.

[2banana]

Mad Magazine used to be conservative and libertarian. For 40 years.

They went hard core progressive.

Let them rot.

#####

“The 2017 reorganization and subsequent 2018 reboot both struggled with finding an identity for MAD in an increasingly satire-saturated world. Between websites that can deliver topical comedy in real time and a fiercely divided American populace who cannot agree on what comedy is because their preferences break down along party lines, MAD struggled to find an elusive niche. When political humor seemed to work, MAD doubled down on lampooning the Trump administration, which earned some critical praise but likely alienated conservative readers as well as putting the magazine in direct competitions with late night shows that were delivering content nightly rather than once every two months.”

[Artemis Webb]

I read MAD religiously until the late 70’s. Then my taste switched to the more adult National Lampoon.

[miss marmelstein]

I had noticed that the art work - which was so brilliant in its hayday - had really fallen off in recent years. Apparently, kids can’t even be trained to draw anymore in this country. The last time they made me laugh was their hilarious take down of Bo Bergdahl.

Farewell MAD!

[P.O.E.]

I still have my stacks of mags and paperbacks

I am extremely jealous.

I've found some scans of old issues on the web (even some torrents of entire issues).

Somewhere upstairs I think I still have my acetate of "It's a Gas"

[niteowl77]

I learned to love MAD back in the 1960's after my dad (a teacher) confiscated a kid's copy during class and brought it home. He enjoyed it enough that for about ten years, it was a monthly staple for both of us.

Sadly, it was not the same publication after certain individuals were no longer contributing and or managing it. Much like The Simpsons, it began to put its finger on the left side of the socio-political scale more and more heavily, becoming PC and unfunny. They may be just getting around to ceasing publication now, but I ceased reading it a long time ago.

[Jack Hammer]

Bummer.

[Vision]

How can mad magazine exist when the left has made reality crazier than what used to be in its pages?

[Gay State Conservative]

[Skywise]

They had to cease publication because they were afraid of being a tool for Trump.

[Yo-Yo]

My favorite Mad cartoon: You're a genius if... But you're an idiot if...

[VanDeKoik]

MAD back in the late 80s and early 90s always had me in stitches.

I always knew it would be a fun day at the library when the new issue was put out.

But I could not imagine that after 2000 kids would still be into that type of publication.

[HamiltonJay]

I got a subscription a few years back as a gag present for my wife, it was pretty much the same as I remembered it from Middle School... then Trump came on the political scene and every issue just became cover to cover bash Trump... and I let it expire.

[Lovely-Day-For-A-Guinness]

At least we still have Viz magazine (but The Rupali Restaurant, made famous by Viz and makers of Curry Hell, shuttered its doors a few years ago).

Nothing beats Profanisaurus for humor.

[knarf]

Me too.

The problem today is that kids don't read.

They've been conditioned to LOL and stick their faces in a teeny tiny three square inch screen to get 80 - 90 % of their input.

Kids ride the bus to school with their faces in the cel phone and can't wait to get out of school to see what so and so said about what you said this morning.