Mad #474 - EC

I thought I'd take a slight detour from profiling the classic b/w mags of the past and take a look at the lone survivor of the format's Golden Age: Mad magazine.

I was charmed to see Mad still on sale at my local 7-11, so I picked it up. I have to admit, I think I felt a twinge of shame as it sat there on the counter as the line behind built up. I'm sure the Usual Gang of Idiots would be proud of that.

Anyway, of course it's hard to review Mad, since I am far past the age group its intended for. But I will say, I was fairly impressed at the level of content they've got going now. Besides work from classic Mad creators Sergio Aragones, Mort Drucker, and Al Jaffe (still doing the fold-ins!), you've got Spy vs Spy by Peter Kuper, and some nice artwork by people unknown to me before now, like Jose Garibaldi, Tom Fowler, and Leonardo Ridriguez.

There are genuine political jokes, here, too, which is impressive when you think that Mad is aimed at young teens. If this inspires an instant skepticism towards the government, then Mad has done its job. There are also jabs at OJ, Bin Laden, and Rumsfeld--hardly risky subjects, but more timely and resonant than the average episode of Saturday Night Live.

And I will admit--one joke genuinely made me laugh. In a mock ad sequence called Foolastic Book Club (ah, Mad), they have a blurb for the real-life line of kids books called Animporphs. On top of a cover scan comes Mad's blurb: "Great for Burning!" That made me laugh.

The one thing I found I was unable to get past--the color. Mad in color just seems...wrong to me. But I guess an all-black-and-white mag just wouldn't fly nowadays, so I guess Mad Marches On (which had to have been the name of one of their paperbacks, surely). I find the color makes the over-stuffed layouts a bit hard to follow, but they're probably child's play to kids raised on Playstation.

So I have to say--if I was an 11-year-old kid who wasn't already in training to be a good little robot, who actually saw most things with an already-jaundiced eye--I would love Mad. Which means Mad is as good as it ever was.