Mad Magazine (1952-), Widely Influential, Satirical Comic Book and Magazine Largely Bolstered by Editor Al Feldstein (1956-1984)

[DonRocks]

Mad Magazine was my supplement to Television for mischievous, childhood entertainment (sorry, gang, no internet back then!)

I wasn't addicted to it or anything, but I really enjoyed it, to the point where I felt Cracked (1958-) was a cheesy substitute - I had no idea that Cracked dated back to the 1950s until just now; I thought it was introduced in the late 1960s (such is the mind of a child - there is no world outside their own immediate experiences).

So I guess you could say I was a "fan" in the same way I was a fan of Star Trek, Twilight Zone, etc. (both of which I've only come to fully appreciate in the past couple of years).

This thread about Pardoning Jack Johnson made an image pop into my head, which I found and attached to this post. I guess I kind of feel like that white hippy, and in fact my Google search was:

"Mad Magazine identify with you, my black brother"

because I remembered those exact words (which kind of shows you how silly I feel about myself sometimes). I thought there would be a one-in-a-million chance of finding just a comment about the issue; never in my wildest dreams did I think *the entire magazine* would be on the internet. It is *amazing* how much detail I remember about the issue - I used to read them, cover-to-cover.

Anyway, while the screenshot of that one funny comic is on the Jack Johnson thread, the *whole Mar, 1972 issue* is right here! It's a monster .pdf file (almost 15 megs), so prepare yourself to do something else while it loads, and enjoy the memories.

MadMagazine1972-03.pdf

[sheldman]

Mad Magazine was my supplement to Television for mischievous, childhood entertainment (sorry, gang, no internet back then!)

I got a very nice rejection letter from Mad (signed by Nick Meglin maybe? certainly not Gaines himself) after I submitted a cartoon to them at the age of 9 or so, in the early to mid 70s.  What a great publication in those days.

[Joe H]

Mad was its best in the EC days with Al Davis, Will Elder and several others. I still have MAD #1 in a sealed bag in a locked box along with some other EC comics which I bought or traded for as a kid. I remember buying the MAD at a pink elephant (or was it white elephant?) sale at Rolling Terrace elementary school off Piney Branch road in Silver Spring. I think I was in third grade. (I am 69 now...)(I swear it wasn't that long ago...)

With all due respect to Apple, Google and even General Eletric or Under Armour, EC was important to me as a child and even more important to me as a retiree. For all of the stories of one's mother or father throwing out comic books because they were trash and occupying space-my mother did not.

I did.

...When I moved into my first apartment and was too lazy to lift the half dozen or more boxes of a couple of thousand comics. I still remember carrying the boxes to a trash bin in the Goodacre Apartments off of Piney Branch road in '64 or '65. There were a coupe of boxes of Topp's baseball cards, too.

I was truly stupid then and today, haven't changed....

For whatever reason I overlooked a handful of EC's and still have them. While some might invest in Petrus or Lafite I prefer several surviving issues of Mad, Weird Science and Vault of Horror.

Elder, Davis even Frank Frazetta (who was in a couple of them) were extraordinary.

We should also talk about R. Crumb and Big Ass Comics or Gilbert Shelton and Mr. Natural sometime.

I got a very nice rejection letter from Mad (signed by Nick Meglin maybe? certainly not Gaines himself) after I submitted a cartoon to them at the age of 9 or so, in the early to mid 70s. What a great publication in those days.

There must be a story about your avatar...

[porcupine]