What me worry?

The iconic satirical magazine simply known as Mad, is ceasing publication after issue #10 this fall. However the 67 year old magazine still has life in it...kinda. Reports indicate the magazine will remain on the newsstands (of comic-book retailers) with reprinted older/classic material for the foreseeable future, featuring new covers. How can a magazine published monthly since 1952 only be on the tenth issue, you ask. The magazine was relaunched at #1 in June of 2018 after Warner Brothers purchased it and relocated the headquarters to California. As you may know, Warner Brothers is the parent company of Detective Comics or DC, and the Mad Magazine team was placed under the DC umbrella. Facing challenges after their ill-fated attempt at the box office, and declining comic sales (to be fair an industry wide trend) DC recently announced they will restructure their titles into three age appropriate tiers; DC Kids, DC and DC Black Label. It appears, and I'm just speculating, that the cancellation of Mad Magazine is part of this shuffle. Although, at the same time that Warner Brothers bought Mad Magazine, AT&T acquired Warner Brothers so its uncertain who actually made the decision to cancel the magazine.

I can say proudly and without a shred of doubt that Mad Magazine was a major influence on my creativity, sense of humor, and even my decision to pursue a career in graphic design. For those keeping track GI Joe was the other major influence. Growing up in the 80's I am biased and profoundly declare that the decade is the undisputed pinnacle of action figures, as well as the cartoons, animated movies, and comic books (that were created to sell the toys). In that proclamation I have never included Mad Magazine, but the 80s saw the peak of main-stream popularity, and arguably the height of talented artists and writers. So from now on I will include Mad Magazine as another reason the 1980s was the best decade ever. As the cover to the left suggests (and I agree) the 1980s was also the pinnacle for professional wrestling. Don't forget 80s music, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and Alf. I mean how can you contend with the 80s?


The movie mockeries, satirical send-ups, and funny features of Mad Magazine were such a major influence on my brother and I that we created our own magazine. Sick was a collection of movie spoofs, comics and articles that were hand-drawn, and written on loose leaf paper. Secured with brass brads and glued together into a magazine format, with full-color covers, a table of contents and everything. The homage to Mad was my introduction into the world of publishing, the organizational aspects of workflow, and the processes of arranging material to communicate your message that comprises graphic design. Like I've told many people, I wanted to be a graphic designer before I knew what a graphic designer was. I still have the two issues of Sick Magazine we completed, unfortunately thirty some years of improper storage, smoke, dust, and water damage has made them mostly unreadable.

Just like Mad Magazine had the gap-toothed Alfred E. Neuman as their cover mascot, issue number 1 of Sick Magazine ("published" Winter of 1986) introduced Otis A. Throb. A thin, bald, and unflinchingly stoic creation of my older brother. Inside included a spoof of Beverly Hills Cop (Beverly Hillbilly Cop), Star Wars (Star Wart) by Chris, and a He-Man parody I made entitled Pee-Man and the Disastrous of the Underwear. I must say that the title of my spoof was far more clever than my brother's lame attempts. Also included were humorous articles such as Inventions We Would Like To See, Transformers We Would Like To See, our own take on Garbage Pail Kids which in turn was a take on the Cabbage Patch Dolls extremely popular in the mid-eighties, multi-panel comics starring Otis A. Throb, and more.

Issue 2 of Sick Magazine ("published Spring of 1987) no longer has a cover, but if I remember it was of a golden Academy Award with Otis A. Throb's head. Movie spoofs included Chris' version of  Top Gun (Top Guy), and The Goonies called The Googles (this was long before search engine/tech giant Google existed), and my parodies of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Indandee 500 and the Temple of Spoons), Farris Bueller's Day Off (Farty Bully's Day Off) and another adventure of Pee-Man and the Disastrous of the Underwear. Also featured was another installment of Sick's Rotten Garbage Patch Kids, Un-Safe Safety Tips, and more.

The esteemed parody-performing superstar "Weird Al" Yankovic tweeted,
"I can't begin to describe the impact it had on me as a young kid - it's pretty much the reason I turned out weird. Goodbye to one of the all-time greatest American institutions."

I feel the exact same way as "Weird Al" and judging by the reaction on social media many, many others are also heartbroken. Unlike Yankovic I did attempt to describe the impact the magazine had on me, it wasn't that difficult, and I feel I did a decent job. I don't know why "Weird Al" was having difficulty. Maybe it was the 280 character limitation of Twitter or maybe he is saving his thoughts for a song. Regardless, goodbye Mad Magazine, you will be missed.