"Almost all American satire today follows a formula that Harvey Kurtzman thought up." - Richard Corliss [Via Tom Spurgeon's TCR]
posted by Alvy Ampersand on Oct 23, 2008 - 10 comments

We wanted to hold onto them for as long as possible. Not as much as a tribute to the early history of MAD... but because these paintings were covering up quite a few holes in the walls.
posted by R. Mutt on Oct 17, 2008 - 8 comments

Longtime MAD magazine artist Al Jaffee (now 87 years old!) created the fold-in as a unique contribution to the MAD-style of satirical humor. Now the NYT has the comprehensive history online in interactive form.
posted by tdstone on Mar 30, 2008 - 27 comments

In all its 55 year history, MAD magazine has been known much more for media satire than political satire... anything political was often camouflaged as a movie or TV parody and generally less partisan than most. (How can you take their politics seriously when they offered Alfred E. Neuman for President?) Another thing about MAD is how rarely it goes outside its "Usual Cast of Idiots" for content. Well, things have changed, as the MAD editors used 10 Pulitzer Prize Winning Op/Ed Cartoonists to illustrate the incendiarilly-titled “Why George W. Bush Is in Favor of Global Warming”. The usually web-shy MAD even allowed the New York Times to put most of the piece online in a slideshow. [more inside]
posted by wendell on Feb 5, 2008 - 55 comments

No Tourists, No Artists. Tourists at Atlanta's Underground didn't realize they were working with an real live artist, but they were. Tom Richmond, Caricaturist Of The Year for 1998 and 1999, recipient of a Reuben Award in 2003 , one-time comic book creator, and frequent artistic contributor to Mad Magazine (movie parodies, mostly), supported his freelance work for almost 18 years by doing cartoons-for-hire in historic Underground Atlanta. Despite many efforts to "save" it, Underground continues to fade in popularity and the tourist traffic just dwindles on down, leaving folks like Tom no choice but to pack up their paints and leave. Tom's story makes for interesting insight into a job that most of us might take for tourist-trapping huckstery. (via Radical Georgia Moderate)
posted by grabbingsand on Jan 7, 2008 - 14 comments

The Apocalypse According to Mad Magazine? Basil Wolverton, best known for his work on early issues of Mad Magazine, was also a Minister in the Radio Church of God. This church, founded by Herbert Armstrong, father of Garner Ted, believed the Apocalypse would happen sometime in 1972, and Wolverton's illustrations were in pamphlets designed to alert the public to this fact. 1972 has passed, the church has splintered, and Herbert is long dead - but nonetheless he has a blog. As a bonus, you can view Basil's apocalypse in 3-d. Wolverton links via
posted by Rumple on May 26, 2006 - 11 comments

Welcome to the world of Frank Kelly Freas (1922-2005), eleven-time Hugo Award-winning illustrator of book and magazine cover and interior art for science fiction, fantasy, the NASA space program, record albums, advertising, and MAD Magazine.
posted by joe lisboa on May 19, 2006 - 8 comments

It's been a while since the glory days of Raw Magazine, but when it was still published the cartoonist whose work I found most intriguing was the pointillist-styled, celebrity obsessed world of Drew Friedman.
posted by Astro Zombie on Mar 4, 2006 - 10 comments

A Mad Parody Of The Onion Well, if this isn't Meta, I don't know what is. Certainly, we all know about The Onion (and, indeed, our consensus is that we don't post Onion links here). The fine fellows at MAD magazine have hoisted the Area Men by their own petard. I hate to say it, 'cuz I think The Onion is often quite funny, but they've got it nailed. (via Heath Row's Media Diet)
posted by briank on Nov 13, 2002 - 58 comments

The Mad Magazine FBI files obtained through FOIPA, contains mostly humourous letters to the FBI regarding whether or not Mad magazine is a communist publication. In other news, you too can become a next Mad magazine artist. A prerequisite? "No intelligence required."
posted by jasonspaceman on Sep 9, 2002 - 10 comments

Mad Magazine cartoonist David Berg dies at 81. One of the "gang of idiots" that were part of the Mad '60's: Sergio Aragones, Don Martin, Antonio Prohias, Mort Drucker, et al.

Ah, well. Another piece of my childhood slips away. What stands out in my mind was that many of his characters bore an uncanny resemblance to my neighbors. But now I'm troubled: did I have a post-modern childhood?
posted by groundhog on May 25, 2002 - 8 comments

Not seen on TV! Survivor Episode.
posted by tamim on Aug 30, 2000 - 0 comments