Any fans of the old MAD magazine in the house?

[BlackVelvetElvis]

I haven't looked at it in about 20 years but I love the old issues from the late 50's-60's. I have a small collection of these issues.
MAD had some top-notch political and cultural parodies, not to mention great artists:
I really love Wallace Wood's work.
Is it still as good?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

1. I grew up on MAD magazine

...in the days BEFORE they crossed over and began swearing in the comics. I never bought an issue after they started that.

Don Martin ruled!

[BlackVelvetElvis]

5. I still have all the Don Martin compilation books

that I bought in the 70's. I loved Captain Klutz.

[Seabiscuit]

8. So did I! Another big Don Martin fan! I used to draw his characters.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

12. Me too! I still have old notebooks from 6th grade.

with his characters scribble in them. I was such a hack!
Not to mention a sentimental packrat.

[Seabiscuit]

22. I drew them in black pen and ink and hung them all over my bedroom

walls. My mother thought I had gone "Mad" (true) and one day I came home to discover she'd taken them all down and thrown them in the trash. I secretly fetched them out, hid them in the attic, and have them all in an album to this day.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

25. Moms are always throwing cool stuff out.

I'm glad you still have them.

[Seabiscuit]

27. Yeah. She also threw out my baseball card collection and my comic

book collection. She did it while I was in summer camp after 7th grade, just before we moved. So I never had a chance to retrieve them.

They would be worth tens of thousands on today's market.

[MuseRider]

2. The 60's yes.

Loved it. I was not a regular reader but loved it when I could see it.

[mac56]

3. Harvey Kurtzman was da bomb.

Bill Elder too.

Did you know Ernie Kovacs wrote for some of the early issues?

[BlackVelvetElvis]

6. Kurtzman, that's way back.

I didn't know that about Kovacs. I would love to see some of those.

[mac56]

9. Tom Lehrer too.

Wrote song parodies.

[MrScorpio]

4. Wally Wood!

Pure genius

Loved the old Mad Magazine

[BlackVelvetElvis]

7. Wallace Wood was an incredible artist.

Have you ever seen his sci-fi illustrations?

[MrScorpio]

10. I'm a comics head

I've seen all kinds of his stuff

He was a master of light and shadow.

His inks were to die for

[mac56]

11. Don't forget Basil Wolverton.

Man, a lot of talent passed through that magazine.

[MrSlayer]

13. Don Martin, Al Jaffee.

Great stuff.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

18. Jaffee did the classic back-cover "fold in".

That took some visual skills and imagination.

[HughBeaumont]

14. 70s - Early 80s reader here

I have lots of stuff from the older ones as well through super-specials and flea markets. Love Berg, Woodbridge (Woodbridge's 60s and 70's work was some of the best satire ever written), Jaffee (I was a Jaffee MARK in junior high) and of course Drucker and Torres. But nothing beats the Wood/Elder/Kurtzman/Davis/Severin/Clarke era, where sight gags were plentiful and took you about four readings to grasp it all.

MAD is now completely unreadable. Every satire is now filled with name-dropping trend-of-the-day jokes that aren't even funny and are just there for the sake of being there, not for the purpose of adding to the story.

Peter Kuper took over Spy vs Spy, took out everything likeable and turned it into something that resembles a gory and mean-spirited Itchy and Scratchy. Monroe - same thing. Mean-spirited, negative-vibed and not even close to being funny. They play the bathroom-rotten-gross-out-humor card from the bottom of the deck. It's sad to see what they've become.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

17. That's sad.

Woodbridge is another favorite of mine.
I heard they take ads now as well. Remember the old MAD had no ads whatsoever?

[HughBeaumont]

21. Full Color ones. No wonder -

It's so lousy now, subscriptions have dropped off at a real fast rate. Everyone that made that magazine great is now either retired, dead, no longer with them or simply going through the motions for a paycheck.

This from a magazine that inspired everyone from Chevy Chase (who once wrote a piece for them) to John Belushi to Jim Morrison . .. and their own ads were better than REAL ones.

[southlandshari]

15. I used to buy them at the Zippy Mart

down the street from my elementary school and hide them in my closet!

I haven't thought about that in a long time. Thanks for triggering the memories!

[mtnsnake]

16. Do you think George W Bush looks something like this?

[On the Road]

19. I Think MAD Had a Lot to Do With the 60s

It imbued a generation of brats with a New York liberal Jewish philosophy while the kids thought they looking at something risque and forbidden. I think it influenced me a lot even though I only read it occasionally.

I have a compilation of 60s material and a history of MAD, both of which are interesting. Some of the material seems lame now, but a lot of the rest stands up. A lot of it's the illustration. Some of it's the political awareness. Some if it's just the Yiddish wit.

Today, it's not as good from the little from what I've seen. I understand the need for advertising, but it does change the feel of the magazine a lot. Some of the newer artists have cruder styles and to me, detract from the traditional MAD spirit. But the illustration on other features is still up to par.

[Poiuyt]

20. Remember that optical illusion tripod?

What was it called?

[HughBeaumont]

23. a "poiuyt"

Named for the right typewriter keys . . .

[Poiuyt]

29. Ah yes, How could I forget that

:)

[alittlelark]

24. For $1 I could get a MAD, an orange or grape soda, and

a handful of penny candies. I would climb onto our roof (or in the neighbor's boat in inclement weather) and enjoy the hell out of life !!

Grape soda still tastes like MAD !

[HughBeaumont]

26. See, damn it, now I'm getting misty eyed . . .

I had that same thing going when I was 7-9 years old. Summers were all about no responsibility, I collected MADs, ate sour candy and Toffifays from Fellner's pharmacy and read until the sun went down.

Think I know what I'm going to do on Sunday. Of course, I'll have an OLD MAD with me.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

28. We were so easy to please.

Mad magazine (40¢ cheap) and the thrill that you were looking at something slightly forbidden.

[alittlelark]

34. It was my 1st experience seeing scantily clad women.

Even as a hetero female it was exciting - something I knew was forbidden - but not sure why.

[Tummler]

30. Potrzebie

Poor Wally Wood. There was a thread earlier today about Vaughn Bode. Both died by their own hand. :(

[BlackVelvetElvis]

31. Didn't he have cancer?

That was a great loss.

[Tummler]

35. Near the end, Wood was a mess

I knew people who saw him at conventions in the late '70s. They said he appeared to be miserable and in a great deal of pain.

From his wikipedia entry:

In the 1970s, following bouts with alcoholism, Wood suffered from kidney failure. A stroke in 1978 caused a loss of vision in one eye. Faced with declining health and career prospects, he committed suicide on November 2, 1981. EC and Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman, who had worked closely with Wood during the 1950s, once commented, "Wally had a tension in him, an intensity that he locked away in an internal steam boiler. I think it ate away his insides, and the work really used him up. I think he delivered some of the finest work that was ever drawn, and I think it's to his credit that he put so much intensity into his work at great sacrifice to himself."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Wood

[bobthedrummer]

32. It's a TIME WARNER product now.

But back in the early 1960's it was a treasure.
I especially love the paperback series and Will Elder's cartoons.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

33. That explains it

gone corporate.
I have some of Elder's "The Spirit" comics too.