History of Mad

Debuting in August 1952 (cover-dated October–November),[1] Mad began as a comic book, part of the EC line published from offices on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan. In 1961 Mad moved its offices to mid-town Manhattan, and from 1996 onwards it was located at 1700 Broadway[2] until 2018 when it moved to Los Angeles, California to coincide with a new editor and a reboot to issue #1.[3][4]

In the planning stages the new publication was referred to as "EC's Mad Mag" ("The title was my suggestion," Al Feldstein once said) but was shorted by Kurtzman to just "Mad."

The phrase "Tales Calculated to Drive You" above the title Mad referenced radio's Suspense which often used the opening, "Tales well calculated to keep you in… Suspense!" With wordplay on "jocular," the vertical subtitle, "Humor in a Jugular Vein," hinted at a sinister satirical edge.[5]

Early artists

Written almost entirely by Harvey Kurtzman, the first issue also featured illustrations by Kurtzman himself, along with Wally Wood, Will Elder, Jack Davis and John Severin. Wood, Elder and Davis were the three main illustrators throughout the 23-issue run of the book; Severin, a mainstay of Kurtzman's EC war comics, left the comic book by the tenth issue. Kurtzman included his own finished art only sporadically, primarily on covers. However, he was known as an exceedingly "hands-on" editor and a visual master, and thus many Mad articles were illustrated in strict accordance with Kurtzman's detailed layouts.[6] A handful of other artists also contributed to the original run, including Bernard Krigstein, Russ Heath and most conspicuously among the non-regulars, Basil Wolverton.[7]

Expansion and evolution

By mid-1953, William Gaines had made plans for expansion. After nine bi-monthly issues, Mad became a monthly with the April 1954 issue. At that same time, EC Comics launched another satirical bi-monthly, Panic, edited by Al Feldstein. Since this new title also used Kurtzman's core trio of artists (Davis, Elder, Wood), the peeved editor felt that Panic sapped and diminished the creative energy necessary to meet Mad's production schedule.[7]

In 1955, with issue 24, the comic book converted to a magazine format. According to popular myth, this was done to escape the strictures of the Comics Code Authority, which was imposed in 1955 following U.S. Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency. Actually, Kurtzman had received a lucrative offer from another publisher, and only stayed when Gaines agreed to upgrade Mad.

In a 1983 interview with The Comics Journal, Gaines remembered:

In a 2016 interview with Gilbert Gottfried on his podcast, Al Jaffee remembered it slightly differently, stating that the original comic primarily focused on spoofing newspaper comics. By adopting the broader magazine format, they could lampoon and parody a wide variety of topics.

The immediate practical result was that Mad acquired a broader range in both subject matter and presentation. Magazines had wider distribution than comic books, and a more adult readership.[9]

Al Feldstein's team

After the bulk of EC's line was canceled in 1954–1955, the company was completely reliant on the improving fortunes of Mad. In a creative showdown, Kurtzman insisted on a 51 percent share in the company or else he would quit.[10] When Gaines rejected the demand, EC was without its dominant creative force, and Kurtzman was separated from the magazine that crystallized his talents. Al Feldstein returned to EC and oversaw Mad during its greatest heights of circulation. Taking over with issue #29 (September 1956), Feldstein set to work assembling a phalanx of humor writers and cartoonists. His first issue as editor coincided with the debut of Don Martin: crucial longtime contributors such as prolific writer Frank Jacobs and star caricaturist Mort Drucker quickly followed. Before the classic Mad staff was assembled, Feldstein also relied on celebrity guest contributions to attract attention and fill pages. Some of these pieces, attributed to Bob and Ray, were actually the work of their main writer Tom Koch, who would flourish in Mad for decades under his own byline. By the early 1960s, working with art director John Putnam and such notables as Antonio Prohias, Al Jaffee and Dave Berg well in hand, Feldstein had fully established the format that was to be a commercial success for decades.

The Mad logo has remained largely unchanged since 1955, save for the decision to italicize the lettering beginning in 1997.[11]

Circulation peak

Al Feldstein joined Mad in the same year that Time described it as a "short-lived satirical pulp".[14] By the time he left 28 years later, the magazine was commonly cited as one of the three greatest publishing successes of the 1950s, along with Playboy and TV Guide. The magazine's circulation more than quadrupled during Feldstein's tenure, peaking at 2,132,655 in 1974, although it had declined to a third of this figure by the end of his time as editor.[15] The highest-selling individual issue was #161 (September 1973), which sold over 2.4 million copies. Sales for the April 1974 issue depressed because of its cover illustrating a hand giving "the finger" gesture. Several newsstands refused to put the issue on stands and Mad offices had extra copies as a result.[16]

For tax reasons, Gaines sold his company in the early 1960s to the Kinney Parking Company. Kinney was in the process of becoming a conglomerate, including acquiring National Periodicals (a.k.a. DC Comics

Later history

External links

• When We Went MAD!: The Unauthorized Story of Mad Magazine – 2025 documentary by Mad Mag Doc, LLC / Gravitas Ventures, hosted at YouTube