Mad Magazine. Who Loved It As A Kid? (Or An Adult)

Farshimmelt!

 

Something I remember now was the MAD sticker album, that came out in 1983. You could buy packs of stickers and ostensibly fill up the book (I didn't make it, but I tried). The stickers were cut into shapes, and you put the stickers into the same shapes in the book. Unfortunately, the shapes didn't actually match up, and I was moved to write my only letter to MAD magazine, which started out, "You guys are schmucks!" and proceeded to explain my frustration with the shape problem. A few weeks later I received a letter from MAD, and I could see through the envelope that it was my original letter, with a lot of red writing on it. I was afraid to open it, as I thought it was a reprimand for calling them schmucks (I was 13). It was actually a reply from Jerry De Fuccio, who just wrote his reply on my letter in red ink. When I asked in the letter why the shape of the sticker and the outline in the book were different, he drew an arrow to my first sentence and wrote, "We're schmucks!" I laughed for a long time after reading the letter, and it made me like MAD even more. He went on to say that the problems were being fixed in the next printing, but I don't know if they ever will. Sadly, the sticker book and the letter didn't survive to adulthood like the magazines did. And also, RIP to Jerry, as well as all the other usual gang of idiots who have passed over the years.

 

I can't find a picture from A Hard Day's Night in which their roadie ("Shake") is reading a MAD paperback.

 

There is a shot of the Mets Celebrating when they won the 1969 Series, and as it zooms in towards the pitchers mound, you se someone in the stands holding up some kind of newspaper of handout or SOMETHING that is obviously "MAD", as you can clearly see the logo, but I have no idea otherwise what it exactly is.

 

Love it and still do.. Some of the old books from the 60's passed down to me by Dad are my most prized possessions

I buy the odd copy now and then, I'd buy even more if it was still "Cheap?!?"

 

Todd - I did go to SVA and graduated 2 years after you. I also had Eisner for 1 semester, but got very little out of the class. I have an advance copy of the book you took out of the library (a friend who used to work at Bloomsbury USA sent it to me last year), but have not read it yet.

That's a very cool letter. I had the pleasure of meeting Don Martin after he defected to CRACKED when he came up from Florida for a Christmas party we had. He signed my copy of Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine by Maria Reidelbach (it's signed by many of the MAD Usual Gang of Idiots, even Gaines). It's packed away, otherwise I'd snap a shot and post it.

 

Back in December '92, I was in NYC for a few days. Got to see a taping of Late Night (right after one of Dave's not-so-happy meetings with the NBC brass, I later learned), and by chance happened to be walking along Madison Avenue with my friend.

I thought it might be fun to see the Mad offices, so a quick peek at a copy on a newsstand gave us the address, and we were off.

We went to Mad's floor and were pretty underwhelmed by what we saw - just a small sign on a windowless wooden door.

Not feeling very brave, we got back into the elevator and were then joined by a man wearing a Mad baseball cap. I asked if he worked for the magazine, and he said something like whatever he did there wasn't work.

He then introduced himself to us (it was Dick DeBartolo) and asked if we'd had "the tour". (?!)

I said we hadn't, so when the elevator reached the ground floor, hit hit the button and took us back up!

Mr. DeBartolo introduced us to Annie Gaines (sadly, her husband had died about six months earlier)and Lenny Brenner. He spent a good 20 to 30 minutes showing us around. (We saw the infamous Christmas tree (which wasn't ironic as we were only two or three days before Christmas) and Bill Gaines' vast collection of rubber stamps. (I believe they were keeping Mr. Gaines' desk as if he had just stepped out for a few minutes.)

Anyway, Mr. DeBartolo made two new friends that day. He was on his way home, yet he took the time to show two total strangers lots of kindness.

Meeting the crew made me stick with Mad for a few extra years - until Warner Communications exercised more corporate control over the magazine and it lost its identity.

 

I remember Uncle Nutzy's Clubhouse (Mad Looks At A Typical Kiddie TV Show) had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt. I became a Mad reader for a few years after that...although I soon became more interested in the teen fan mags at the time (Tiger Beat, Teen Set, Hullabaloo, etc.) that were covering the Beatles & their contemporaries before Rolling Stone Magazine was established.

 

So maybe we crossed paths in the halls of SVA back in the '80s then, Jeff.

I did have MAD's Harvey Kurtzman as a teacher at SVA when he appeared to be in better health than when he taught you, but even then...sorry to say...he seemed like he was only there for the paycheck sometimes. And that new book about Will Eisner accurately portrays Kurtzman as often having his students walk all over him. We did have one class with Harvey where he had us all practice pie throwing maneuvers to open our minds (or at least I think that was his motivation.) I imagine that you probably contributed cartoons like I did to his "Kartunz" magazine that was published at the school when you were a student there.

That's cool that you got to meet Don Martin in person (at a Christmas party no less). I've heard that he was a very shy individual in person.

By the way, here's a YouTube video of when MAD publisher William M. Gaines appeared on "To Tell The Truth". I actually remember seeing this segment the first time it aired on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSoxQNJjkFs

 

I almost forgot I had this. For what it's worth, my brother went to a cartooning and gag symposium at the Stamford Museum in Connecticut back in June of 1994 and he gave me this program that he had several MADmen autograph. (Signatures shown include Nick Meglin, Bob Clarke, Angelo Torres, Rick Tulka, John Caldwell, Bob Englehart, Stan Goldberg and George Wildman.)

 

And this one was hard to scan (as you can see by the not so great results) but this was one of the t-shirts that they sold there at the Stamford Museum in 1994 that my brother had MAD caricaturist Mort Drucker sign for me too.

 

Great posts, all!
Keep on sharing.

 

I got a hold of some used issues in the mid-80's, when I was around 10 years old. I instantly "got" it and went foraging in used book stores for used copies. Wound up with a good bunch throughout the years. My earliest is from 1957, I believe.

Got into "Cracked" as well, but "Mad" was always my favorite.

 

Ever read up on the early history of Alfred E. Newman? Check out the vintage pre-MAD graphics!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman

 

I think you nailed it on the head there. This was true with a lot of other famous brands in the entertainment business in all realms (films, TV, music, books, magazines) before the major corporations all but took over.

 

From one of the pages you linked to....(edited)



A sentiment some have expressed in mp3 threads on this forum. Kinda funny...hahahahahaa....NOT !!


But really...it is !

 

The article is actually from the late 50's. It's from the hi-fi craze that was going on at the time.

The entire article was posted in its own thread here:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=197757

This strip (from one of Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side Of...") is also quite funny:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=203997

 

Not sure if anybody posted this yet, but here's Bill Gaines on To Tell the Truth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSoxQNJjkFs

 

Thanks, I ordered a couple of these, one for myself and one as a gift. I guess
Amazon sold out of their stock as I got mine for around $18 each and now
they are going for $59.

 

Funny !! Plan9 cropped the same 'letter to the editor' I did in his post from that thread...

I guess we're like minded...like a million of the rest of us !!

 

Avid reader from about 73 to 79. Then I started reading Creem.

Here's a fairly recent interview with the great Al Jaffee.

http://motherjones.com/media/2010/09/interview-al-jaffee-mad-life-snappy-answers

 

I still read MAD from time to time. It's amazing how they can change with the times and not skip a beat. On the cover this month is Alfred E. with Facebook founder, and they positively LAMPOON Facebook!!!!

 

I'd say I read it from 67-71, then moved to National Lampoon. The cahnge happened pretty much at the same time that I moved from Circus to Creem. Mad was NOT cool in high school; it was something jr high kids read; us "cool"
people read Lampoon.

 

I only picked up the occassional issue as a kid. However, I do have a copy of the first magazine sized issue. Mad started as an EC comic, but after the code destroyed comics, they beefed it up to a magazine to escape censorship.

 

I picked up my first issue of Mad Magazine when I was 9 and was obsessed with it for several years. I had a subscription, devoured the books, and picked up old back issues on family vacations when we'd stop at these little roadside antique/junk shops looking for treasures. The older issues were probably my first introduction into 60's and 70's politics and history. It reminds me of a line from Milhouse is the Simpsons; "Wow, they sure are socking it to that Agnew guy!" I would read it cover to cover, from the letters to the fold-in. Below is the cover from my first issue.