History of Mad
With its first issue (October-November, 1952), Mad was a comic book
, and part of the line of EC Comics published from the Lower East Side
in New York City
. Mad's subtitle, "Tales Calculated To Drive You" above the title Mad, referenced radio's Suspense
which each week used the opening, "Tales well calculated to keep you in... Suspense!" The vertical subtitle, "Humor in a Jugular Vein," indicated the possibility of a sinister edge to the satire (as well as being a play on words for "jocular").
Written almost entirely by Harvey Kurtzman
, the first issue displayed the cartoon talents of Kurtzman, Wally Wood
, Will Elder
, Jack Davis
and John Severin
. Wood, Elder and Davis were the main three illustrators throughout the 23-issue run of the comic book; Severin, a mainstay of Kurtzman's EC war comics, was phased out of Mad by the tenth issue. Kurtzman included his own cartooning only sporadically, primarily on the 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. A handful of other artists contributed to the original run, including Bernard Krigstein
, Russ Heath
, and most conspicuously among the non-regulars, Basil Wolverton
. Wolverton's grotesque faces made a striking impression despite only appearing in two issues of the comic book.
The first two issues of Mad spoofed only comic book genres of romance, horror, sports and science fiction without overly specific references. However, with the third issue, Kurtzman turned to direct parodies, targeting the well-known radio programs ("Dragged Net!
"), and the Lone Stranger!
." This approach proved fruitful, and in short order Kurtzman was gleefully hammering away at such targets as newspaper comic strips ("Little Orphan Melvin!
"), comic books ("Superduperman!
"), movies ("Ping Pong
!") and television ("Howdy Dooit!
").
By the summer of 1953, the success of Mad was apparent, and Gaines 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.
With issue 24 (July, 1955), Mad switched to a magazine format. The "extremely important message" was "Please buy this magazine!"
In 1955, with issue 24, the comic book was converted into a magazine
. The popular myth is that this was done to escape the strictures of the Comics Code Authority
, which was imposed in 1955 following United States Senate
hearings on juvenile delinquency
. Actually, Kurtzman received a lucrative offer from the publisher of Pageant
and only stayed when Gaines agreed to convert Mad to a similarly "slick" magazine. 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.
However, the Comics Code Authority had proven fatal to Gaines' EC Comics line. Publisher Gaines had suffered both financially and creatively from targeted industry censorship
, and the enmity of his fellow publishers. EC's national distributor, Leader News
, was the nation's weakest and did not have the clout to withstand an undeclared industry boycott of EC product; the company's comics were frequently returned still in their original, unopened bundles. These factors combined to drive all EC comics from the stands, except for Mad, which was too profitable to ignore. The company's financial status grew shakier in 1956 when Leader News declared bankruptcy, leaving EC over $100,000 in debt. Only the Gaines family's investment of capital and a fortuitous deal with the much stronger American News
distributor kept Mad afloat.
After the bulk of EC's line was cancelled in 1954-55, the company was completely reliant on the improving fortunes of
Al Feldstein joined Mad in the same year that Time
described it as a "short-lived satirical pulp." 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 declined to a third of this figure by the end of his time as editor.
When Feldstein retired in 1984, he was replaced by the team of Nick Meglin
and John Ficarra
, who co-edited Mad for the next two decades. Meglin retired in 2004. Ficarra continues to edit the magazine today.