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unusual policy regarding office deportment: as long ror up to life.” But that’s not the whole story.
as the work got done, the deadlines were met, and Because the MAD staff produced a magazine
the magazine made money, he didn't care how long that they themselves enjoyed, MAD’s humor
the lunch hours were, about the staff punching a had several layers. Having read MAD as a kid in
time clock, or about any certain code of dress. the 1960s, I can vouch for the fact that some of
Paradoxically, Gaines was also as cheap as he the humor was aimed right down at our level
could be generous, and on one notorious occasion where we could get at it, but, tantalizingly,
stopped work in the office for two days to track much of it was a bit beyond us, which made the
down a personal long-distance phone call no one magazine all the more indispensable.
would admit to. As a lark, he once filled up the To us kids in the early sixties, MAD
office water cooler with wine and spent the day provided not just a funhouse mirror but also
watching his staff get even nuttier than usual. “I a two-way mirror into the real world, a
create the atmosphere, the staff creates the world MAD-ly skewed, but one that would be
magazine,” said Gaines, in perfect summation. By unfathomable without MAD. What kept us
the early 1970s, Bill Gaines had come to be regarded buying the magazine (when the same money
as one of the world's great eccentrics, and by the would have netted two comic books and a
time of his death in 1992, he had—along with the candy bar) was that MAD was a sort of first
magazine he published—become a full-blown primer for adult life, a necessary ingredient,
American cultural icon. and manual for the rites of passage. When all
MAD had few, if any, sacred cows, was said and done, the really amazing thing
and didn’t hesitate to make fun of hippies about MAD was that it was a magazine for
and the 1960s counterculture. adults (with a readership that extended from
A perfect example of possibly biting us to high school, college, and far beyond),
the hand that fed them is the but we “got it” too, and the guy in the drug
Norman Mingo cover to store didn’t look at you funny if you tried to
MAD No. 118 (April 1968)
buy a copy.
GROOVY,
AND BEYOND END OF AN ERA
While Kurtzman After nearly thirty years of editing the magazine, editor Al Feldstein
Alfred E. Neuman morphs into MAD originated the for- decided to retire at the end of 1984. Bill Gaines promoted longtime
publisher Bill Gaines in this specialty piece mat, MAD’s most associate editor Nick Meglin (who had contributed many funny ideas
done by Jack Rickard in the late 1960s to the magazine and had a proven eye for talent), and a relative new-
popular features of the
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and onward were developed under Feldstein’s comer to the editorial staff (and a former MAD freelance writer) John
editorship, including Dave Berg’s “Lighter Side,” Al Jaffee’s “Fold-Ins,” Ficarra to be co-editors. This proved to be quite a successful arrange-
Mort Drucker’s movie parody caricatures, Sergio Aragonés’s “MAD ment, which continued for nearly twenty years until Nick Meglin
Marginals,” and Antonio Prohias’s “SPY vs SPY.” The MAD message, retired in 2004 after an incredible 48 years with the magazine.
almost from its inception, was not to believe everything you see, that Ficarra carried the torch until December 2017, when MAD’s
authority might need to be questioned sometimes, Madison Avenue is corporate owners announced that the office (which had always been
lying to you, and that absurdity abounds – a message that was not lost based in New York) was moving to Burbank, California. None of the
on its readers. MAD associate editor Nick Meglin always maintained, longtime staffers elected to leave New York, and a new editor, Bill
“MAD doesn’t really create as much as reflect. We hold a funhouse mir- Morrison, was anointed. A relaunch followed, starting over with a new

Antonio Prohias, who had to flee Cuba in 1960 Another perennial fan favorite from MAD is Apart from Norman Mingo and Kelly Freas,
after criticizing Fidel Castro, created the art of Don Martin, famous for the bulbous a number of artists have illustrated covers for MAD.
the long-running feature “Spy vs Spy” for MAD. noses, hinged feet, and endless iterations of One of the best is Richard Williams,
“Spy vs Spy” featured endless Cold War-style “sound effects” to be found in his work. who brought a Norman Rockwell esthetic
battles between the white spy and the black spy, This example, “Yesterday in Downtown to his work for MAD. Pictured here is his
and some installments featured a gray female spy, Freensville,” is from MAD No. 233, Rockwell-influenced cover to MAD
who always got the better of both of them. September 1982 No. 248, July 1984
(MAD No. 84, January 1964.)
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