MAD MAGAZINE GOING QUARTERLY

Live from Twitter:

Mad magazine's Dick Debartolo just twittered that his magazine will be going quarterly after its 500th issue.


I obsessed over Mad magazine between sixth and tenth grade so this is a little personal for me. However, it doesn't surprise me. For a decade Mad magazine has been deviating from the vision of its founder William M. Gaines. Some time back and inspired by the (short term) success its TV show of the same name, the magazine did a "relaunch" where they included a color section, accepted advertisements, and decided to include more explicit humor. It was also about this time that I stopped subscribing. Somewhere along the line, they also gave up their independence, sold themselves to a larger publishing house, and moved from their Madison Avenue office.

Mad's original combination of witty and subversive (but not raunchy) comics on "cheap" newsprint was a timeless formula. It doesn't surprise me that they've jacked with the formula and, consequently, are on the brink of failure. Portzebie... Ecch...