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| First issue. Cover by HARVEY KURTZMAN. Copyright relevant owner |
Here's another guest post by Bashful BARRY PEARL. I suspect Barry is trying to take over the world and he's decided to start with my blog. Well, let's face it - it needs all the help it can get. Take it away, Barry.
The U.S. version of Mad Magazine stopped publishing this year. I believe this was because it had become the same as what it was originally satirizing: formulistic, industrialized, predictable, repetitive and, frankly, unoriginal. I learned from the Kid that the British version (started in 1959), which reprinted much of the American material, was discontinued in 1994.
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The U.S. version of Mad Magazine stopped publishing this year. I believe this was because it had become the same as what it was originally satirizing: formulistic, industrialized, predictable, repetitive and, frankly, unoriginal. I learned from the Kid that the British version (started in 1959), which reprinted much of the American material, was discontinued in 1994.
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| A UK edition from the early 1970s. Cover by DON MARTIN |
If all the people who complained about Mad's passing had still bought the damn magazine, it would still be in business. As most people will know, it started life as a colour comic book and stayed that way for 23 issues. With #24, it became a (mainly) b&w magazine, but contrary to popular belief, the change was not to escape the scrutiny of the newly formed Comics Code - that was just a happy bonus. The real reason was because publisher Bill Gaines wanted to keep editor Harvey Kurtzman from jumping ship to somewhere else, and since Kurtzman had always wanted to work on the 'slicks' (as they were known), Gaines turned Mad into a mag in order to keep him on board.
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| Comic book parody of ARCHIE. Art by WILL ELDER |
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| Comic book parody of SUPERMAN. Art by WALLY WOOD |
Mad first appeared in 1952, and with Harvey Kurtzman's vision, satirized the popular culture medium it was in. Comics, movies, TV shows and magazines. These features still hold up today, they are damn funny! A year after Mad metamorphosed into a magazine (1955), Kurtzman left and Al Feldstein became editor. He expanded the world of Mad and it became a periodical aimed not just at children, but also young adults. In growing the circulation to over two million copies, Feldstein became a "non-conformist" in an American society that was preaching conformity. Honest, this was a big deal then. Kids were wearing different clothes, listening to different music, and had different styles and lengths of hair than their parents. And, with the Viet Nam war waging they were developing different values and different views about patriotism.
I cannot name all the magazines that Mad inspired, but among them were Crazy, Snafu, Spoof, Cracked, Sick, Lunatickle, Cockeyed, Thimk, Frenzy, Frantic, Loco, Panic, and Zany. The list, in America, of all the TV shows and comedians it influenced would also be long.
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| First magazine issue (#24) |
But Creativity and humor come from individuals, not corporations. Mad became a property under a chain of ownership and supervision starting in the early 1960s: The Kinney Corporation, Warner Brothers, then DC Comics, then Time Warner, then AOL Time Warner, and now AT&T. At first Mad was left alone, but after Feldstein and Gaines departed, it became more and more corporate. And predictable and boring in the early 1970s.
I think Mad wanted to remain "G" rated, available for kids, so its audience, as it grew older, waned. In 1970, National Lampoon, temporarily, took its place. But satire needs to be current, and Lampoon soon faded away. (Lampoon radically changed in 1975 when its creators left and companies took over… not to produce magazines but other properties such as movies. But that's another blog post.)
But National Lampoon got one thing current, they saw the diminishing reach of Mad Magazine and produced a wonderful, funny and accurate satire of Mad. It’s from 1972 and the cover is by John Romita, most famous for Spider-Man! Read it below.
Kid, i was really thinking of writing a much longer post. But the National Lampoon spoof covered all the bases. I especially like Citizen Gaines. Mad needed to grow, or grow up and it never did. Or never could. Thanks also for your adds. I was thinking about adding why it became a magazine, But I didn’t wanna go on too long. But you covered it.
ReplyDeleteThe longer your posts, the better, Barry, as then I have a better chance of inserting all the images you usually supply. Besides, I knew you'd probably meant to mention why it became a magazine, so it was simple to include the relevant info at the proofreading stage.
ReplyDeleteI'd long had the impression that Mad went to the B&W full-size magazine format to evade the Comics Code. Never knew the real reason until now. Another case of live and learn.
ReplyDeleteI was under that same impression at one time, TC, mainly because that's the way accounts are usually worded - or at least, that's what accounts SEEM to be saying. It may be that some accounts have merely reported the two events (Mad switching to magazine format at the time the Code was about to be introduced) and we, the readers, have assumed there was a cause and effect link between them. As you say - live and learn.
ReplyDeleteMy first exposure to MAD in the UK were the paperback reprints of the early comic stories. This wasn't the best way to view the now b/w art in reduced size and it was about 1958 that American magazines started to appear followed by the UK edition which for some reason was readily available at seaside resorts and hard to find in London.
ReplyDeleteOf all the artists it's Don Martin that stood out, there just wasn't anyone with that weird approach to drawing.
When I moved to NYC in 1974, my first Freelance job as a Graphic Designer was for a printer located on Lafayette Street in Manhattan. When I first wrote the address down it had a familiar feel and it was a year later that I realised it was the building where MAD was first published!
Fast forward to 1990. I was working at the New York Daily News when a strike was initiated by union members. It was a strange time to continue working. The union I was in left it up to members to decide for themselves whether or not to strike and most of my department carried on.
During this time for reasons I do not recollect, another artist and myself decided to go to the offices of MAD then on Madison Avenue at 52nd Street to buy Alfred E. Newman watches for our daughters!
The receptionist called someone to reception and it was none other than Bill Gaines. When he heard we were at the Daily News he took us into a store room that was floor to ceiling metal flat files full of original art. On hearing I was a fan of Don Martin he opened a draw and I was amazed to see a page I recognised from the paperback 'Don Martin Steps Out'.
From a huge metal trunk he took two Alfred E. Newman watches, the trunk was full of different MAD merchandize from over the years.
We payed for the watches and were each given a blue metal badge with the head of Alfred E. Newman and the words 'What Me Worry'.
We wore the badges for the rest of the strike which ended when British Publisher, Robert Maxwell was paid to take the newspaper from the owners.
Wow, what a great reminiscence, T47 - to actually meet Bill Gaines, that's an awesome result. The artist that stood out for me in the '60s & '70s was Mort Drucker - his likenesses were always spot-on, but I liked Don Martin as well.
ReplyDeleteAs for Robert Maxwell - well, the less said about him, the better. Some people who worked at the Youth Group (responsible for the comics) that he bought from IPC, didn't get their pensions because of his shenanigans.
Still got the watch and badge?
At the time I bought the watch my daughter and I were collecting advertising watches which were all the rage in marketing in those days. The MAD watch is in the collection which I'll dig out next weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe badge was in my bedside table until two years ago when we packed up everything for an apartment renovation. Just as items trigger your memory to houses you have lived in, I remember exactly where things were before we renovated. Much stayed in storage so it will need too search to find it.
I'm pretty sure I still have my copy of Don Martin Steps Out still.
You may have read; THE MAN THAT DREW TOMMORROW a biography of Frank Hampson the creator of my favourite comic of all. I had read it just before the strike and when Maxwell took over, the Daily News management asked for suggestions on how to increase sales of the newspaper.
The News had a colour Sunday Section that was running Prince Valiant, Peanuts, Dick Tracy and other old chestnuts of comic strips. Having read that Hampson had envisioned Dan Dare being adapted to run in the USA, and knowing there was a new version of Eagle being published by Maxwell I met briefly with the paper's Editor, lent him the Hawk Books reprint of the first Dare story, gave him an LP, 'West of the Rockies' by Elton John for his daughter, it had the Dan Dare/Mekon song, and from that received permission to send a letter/phone to the Youth Group in London for copies of the new Eagle for his review.
The grand plan to revive the Sunday Funnies with British strips came to naught. The editor wasn't interested and there was reluctance from the UK to do so.
If it had come to pass you might have been the person re lettering and dialog changes from UK to US English.
The paper carried on loosing readership all the time I was there. Management couldn't be convinced that getting early readers, kids and new immigrants learning English, to read, started a habit for life. That's how readership had been gained back from 1919 when the Daily News was founded.
The idea probably would have fallen apart when Maxwell went overboard and the paper went into a period of bankruptcy then new ownership.
Yes, have read and own The Man Who Drew Tomorrow, it's on a shelf in a cupboard behind me - very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the 'new' Eagle had come out in 1982, so by the time Maxwell bought the Youth Group (sometime around 1987 I think), it had seen its best years. It eventually became a monthly, featuring reprints of earlier stories, though the Dan Dare strips were new. However, sales weren't great and it was cancelled in 1994.
Interesting to think that I might have relettered the strip had things played out. I relettered foreign strips into English for Marvel UK, and English strips into Dutch or Swedish for Egmont. Funnily enough, it was Hanna-Barbera strips in each case.
I once owned an original page of art (front cover) from the first Eagle's second year, but I eventually sold it many years later. There's a photo of it on the blog somewhere.
I've got hardbound volumes from the '80s of the first 23 issues of Mad comic, as well as a late '90s, 8-ish magazine series reprinting the same stories, but the only merchandise I've got is/are a couple of Alfred E. Neuman figures that came with magazine Specials. Or maybe it was the Specials that came with the figures.
I still own a number of original art boards from Dan Dare before 1960. They are blogged on MOONBASE CENTRAL just enter a search for them on the site.
ReplyDeleteOver the years there was a lot of Alfred E. Newman merchandise, but not in the UK.
Back in High School (Secondary Modern actually) the art department had plants in clay flower pots for still life drawing. The pots had ART stenciled on them in white. With chalk we changed that to ARTHUR courteously of MAD.
I think I've seen those boards on Moonbase, but I'll take another look next time I visit the site, T47. You'll have the Dan Dare figure, I presume? I've got it as well. Is nice, but not quite what it should've been.
ReplyDeleteWe had that conversation on Moonbase. You commented on the shortcomings of the sculpt and the fit, so I'm glad I kept mine in the box. It's too ugly to even display. Or as they would say in MAD, 'Potrzebie"
ReplyDeleteI thought we'd had, T47, but wasn't 100% sure whether it was with you or someone else. The old memory is failing me these days, alas (unless it's something that happened over ten years ago). My Dan is hanging high on the wall by the side of my desk as I type.
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