MAD
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MAD made its debut in August 1952, with the Oct.-Nov. issue. It was published bimonthly for nine issues, then monthly from April 1954, by which time it was selling, according to one account, 750,000 copies — more than half-again as many as EC’s top horror titles. MAD’s success had the same effect on originality-deprived competitors as the popularity of the horror-comics line; a couple dozen “humor” titles sprang up within two years of MAD’s debut. One was EC’s in-house ripoff, Panic magazine. The bimonthly Panic ran for 12 issues, from early 1954 to the end of 55; the first six issues were written by Feldstein, the next six by Jack Mendelsohn (who would later work on various TV series and co-write the Beatles’ animated film “Yellow Submarine”). The full-size, black-and-white, 48-page, 25-cent MAD made its debut with #24, the July 1955 issue. Its cover featured an illustrated frame (by Kurtzman) indicating the subjects to be surveyed inside. Kurtzman first put this laughing-kid face on the cover of Ballantine Books’ “The MAD Reader,” a collection of stories from the comic book. He then appeared as a tiny icon on the cover of MAD #21. By the end of Kurtzman’s year making MAD a magazine, the name, the face and the “What, me worry?” phrase had come together to form the magazine’s corporate logo, which Feldstein would codify as MAD’s cover boy from issue #30 on. |
Última atualização: 06/out/04