Crazy about Mad
Ten years ago, an episode of “The Simpsons” had Bart sarcastically dissing Mad magazine, saying something like, “Wow, that’s so funny.” The 10-year-old was too advanced for Mad‘s lame juvenile antics. I hadn’t looked at the magazine since the late 1970’s, and remembered feeling that way about it then. Any hint of the subversive was long gone.
But the last several years have brought about a Renaissance (even as the magazine’s circulation has dwindled, and its publication schedule reduced to quarterly). Whenever I’ve seen a new issue in the comics store, I’ve picked it up and gotten a few actual chuckles. (Without, I should note, buying it — hence the reduced publication frequency.) At last year’s San Diego Comic Con, DC inserted into attendees a convention-only special “Watchmen” issue of Mad. It was flat-out wonderful. Now that the magazines going to come out only four times a year, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have been supporting it all along, even if only for my kids. (And isn’t that really why we do everything? “For the children?” Political campaigns, tirades about deficits and taxes, worker-safety laws, empty populism — it’s all always “for the children.” Because, I guess, the rest of us don’t matter.)
In any event, here’s something I just Stumbled across that shows again why recent Mad is so much fun.
March 28th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I recently bought an issue of Mad, the one with the Watchmen cover, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Just passed it along to a co-worker who had been saying that he’d heard it wasn’t good anymore. I held onto one of the subscription forms that was inside. They offer 12 issues for $19.99. If it’s quarterly, that would cover three years. I think this is my chance to support the arts in America.