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For many of us, MAD Magazine was, back in the day, what The Daily Show and the Colbert Report are now. Irreverent and insightful, sarcastic and spot on, MAD was the sort of bent social commentary that fueled our cynicism and sharpened our collective eye. Now a venerable 60 years old and still going strong (it even has its own iPad app!), Time Home Entertainment has published a tribute book to honor six decades of a pop cultural institution.
Mad Magazine as a coffee table book — the phrase seems nearly oxymoronic. But, Totally Mad: 60 Years of Humor, Satire, Stupidity and Stupidity is anything but — moronic, that it is. Released October 30 Totally Mad is a must for anyone who grew up (or never did) with the ageless Alfred E. Neuman.
With a hilarious foreword by Stephen Colbert and Eric Drysdale, Totally Mad is 254 glossy pages of Mad‘s unique take on just about everything: just as sarcastic, sharp, iconoclastic, and funny as you seem to remember. Arranged by decade, the all the “usual gang of idiots” responsible for deranging…er…enlightening several generations of innocent minds are there: Antonio Prohias‘ classic “Spy vs Spy”comic, the ingenious MAD fold-ins by Al Jaffee, David Berg’s “Lighter Side of…,” and my personal favorites, the spot-on movie and TV satires of Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, and Tom Richmond.
During my own misbegotten youth, I would wait breathlessly for my next MAD to arrive in the mailbox, wondering what the mad geniuses at MAD would skewer next. They left no stone unsatirized: politics, celebrity, technology, movies and television. Nothing was sacred.
Leafing through Totally MAD, I was delighted and surprised at how much I recalled of my own MAD experience — how much was memorable enough to remember decades later. “M.U.S.H” from the April 1984 issue, “honoring” the long-running television series on its departure from its “Th-Tha-That’s Alda, Folks Dept.,” the peeks into the “contents of a celebrity’s wallet,” the Vietnam era “Hawks and Doves” strip, the Star Wars parody. The list goes on.
These are not just snippets of things appearing in MAD over the years; they are full pages (and pages) — including those infuriatingly tiny margin drawings. The entire book is beautifully done, fitting of a 60th anniversary.
As a bonus, Time-Warner has included a set of the most memorable full size MAD covers printed on card stock, chosen by publisher William Gaines and editors Nick Meglin and John Ficarra during the 1980s as the “Soul of MAD.” The 8×10 posters are suitable for framing (or for practicing your darts throwing arm).
Totally MAD is a great walk back through, not only the pages of MAD, but through our own pop-cultural history. Available October 30, it will retail for $34.95.
In the meantime, enjoy my interview with MAD’s Editor-in-Chief John Ficarra from July’s Comic-Con International in San Diego:
