Posted by
Vinceman007 on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 11:32:12 PM
DC comics, owner of Mad magazine, has announced the move to quarterly instead of issuing Mad monthly, as has been the custom for the last 50+ years. William Gaines, late editor and founder of Mad , would be up in arms about the whole situation.
I don't agree with DC's premise that the entire magazine business is in sad financial straits however - I think while much of the artwork has maintained its same standard of high quality, thanks to Mort Drucker and Al Jaffee and many of its stalwart artists, the content has suffered as its editors put out a call to writers to feature Howard Stern-like humor. While Mad always skirted juvenile humor, it was implicit rather than overt.
Its much harder to make a joke about flatulence by being oblique and witty than it is to just make the sound (as Eddie Murphy's career has painfully shown). A revamped (dumbed down) Letters page featuring something called The Fundalini Papers that is neither witty nor funny, but just a waste of space was foisted on loyal Mad readers. Unfunny 'ghetto' comics and photo-funnies replaced much of the classic humor in its pages. Many of its wonderful artists like Don Martin, Dave Berg and Norman Mingo passed away (not to be replaced by artists of a similiar Mad bent or quality). Instead of poking fun at suburbia and the middle class, the magazine took on more of a street edge - hoping to attract a younger audience (who never learned to read) and driving away the boomers who still buy an occasional magazine out of old habit.
While the magazine always continued to be 48 pages, now it shares its space with advertisements (a loathsome feature that Bill Gaines was always careful to avoid).
The problem with Mad is that its simply lost touch with its readers. While you used to be able to lie back in bed and count on nearly every article to be gold, now you hope to find one or two things to smile at in the entire magazine.
Come on, you nutty Mad artists and writers! We're still here - your loyal readers! A little older perhaps, a little wider... But always willing to laugh, and harboring a special place in our hearts for Alfred E. and all of you guys. Don't fade away like that other pandering to kids weekly antique Saturday Night Live. Gross, obscene pictorials don't do it for us - you have to be a tad more witty, a bit more cutting edge. Honor your Golden Past and look forward to a Shining future...Come back home, boys, we miss you!
-v