Video: Inside The Mad Magazine Offices
July 8, 2019, 4:08 p.m.
RIP-ish Mad Magazine.
Inside the Mad offices, 2016.
Last week, news came that Mad Magazine would be ceasing publication of new content, which means that—after 67 years—you won't be seeing it on newsstands after the August issue drops.
The finer print is a little confusing, which is why you're seeing headlines declaring it all but dead," and "basically dead."
Here's what's going on: After that last August issue, the publication will be printing earlier material from the archives with new covers. Newsweek reports that Mad's owners DC Comics (and AT&T) have yet to release an official statement, but editors and contributors have taken to Twitter to help clarify what's going on.
I need to clarify the MAD rumors: MAD isn't shutting down but is only leaving the newsstand and will be sold to the direct market. The best thing to do is buy MAD and support it as much as possible, it's not going away!
— David DeGrand (@daviddegrand) July 4, 2019
There’s been an outpour of kindness surrounding the rumor that @MADmagazine is ceasing publication, but MAD is not quite done. After the next TWO great new issues are released, MAD will begin publishing bi-monthly issues with vintage pieces and new covers.
— Allie Goertz (@AllieGoertz) July 4, 2019
Goertz added, "I find it deeply sad to learn that there will be no new content, but knowing history repeats itself, I have no doubt that the vintage pieces will be highly (if not tragically) relevant."
And here's your doomsday tweet thread regarding the news:
A year after gobbling up DC Comics, ATT shuts down Vertigo and Mad. I fear they're not done. ATT will do to comics publishing what they did to the internet. Insane profits for them, crap for the rest of us. https://t.co/n94iJU4E4n
— Derf Backderf (@DerfBackderf) July 5, 2019
But we're here to celebrate what was... and what sort of still is? The satirical magazine was founded in 1952, when it created the game it would go on to excel at for many years, speaking to the times, time and again, forever holding a funhouse mirror up to the political and cultural landscape. But even without Mad, the thing it created is still out there, transforming. In 2009, the NY Times noted how it "once defined American satire" but "now it heckles from the margins as all of culture competes for trickster status." A year later Al Jaffee dove into this further, saying, "When Mad first came out... it was the only game in town. Now, you've got graduates from Mad who are doing... Stephen Colbert or Saturday Night Live. All of these people grew up on Mad. Now Mad has to top them. So Mad is almost in a competition with itself."
In 2016, things were still going strong as we dropped by their offices, which had just relocated to Midtown. Here's our glimpse inside the world they had created over all those decades:
We also spoke with Mad's journeyman cartoonist, Jaffee, in 2016, which you can watch below:
