In early July, rumors started to surface that MAD Magazine was going to cease publishing new material and just reprint old stuff with new covers. MAD has been around since 1952 and has influenced multiple generations of smart asses. The eulogies came quick and heavy, and they\u2019re still coming, even though we\u2019ve never gotten a terrible clearly statement about the magazine\u2019s future. Everyone seems so sure it\u2019s dead, but what happens next with the magazine seems far from certain. <\/p>\n
I loved MAD when I was a kid, and I\u2019m the proud owner of a rejection letter from sending in a bunch of ideas years ago. It was a formative publication for me. But what is MAD Magazine now, and why save it? That\u2019s the question I asked of Michael Gerber, editor and publisher of the humor magazine The American Bystander, and Ian Scott McGregor, an actor and filmmaker with a very personal attachment to MAD dating back to the early 90s, when he began to meet and befriend the writers and publishers in New York. He has been giving out \u201cStay MAD\u201d stickers and trying to rally readers to help save the book. Gerber is leading a team of investors trying to save it. <\/p>\n
Since MAD has been around so long, parodying popular culture all the way, this conversation wound up covering everything from the comics code and the Red Scare right up to the current administration and the magazine\u2019s recent \u201cGhastly Gun\u201d Edward Gorey parody. The new issue of MAD Magazine<\/em>, which might be the final one with new material, is out on stands now. You can find out more at madmagazine.com<\/a>. And you can find The American Bystander<\/em> at americanbystander.org<\/a>, and McGregor at ianscottmcgregor.com<\/a>. The site to help save MAD is savemadmagazine.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n