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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Mad #500: Not Dead, Not Worried  resiliency: Mad magazine issue #500 hits newsstands this week, just as the title reduces its frequency. The anniversary of 57 years in print celebrates the past and also marks the beginning of the book’s change from monthly to quarterly publication. Despite the frequency change, the new issue of fresh and retrospective work defies rumors of the book’s ultimate demise. “Look for our 1,000th issue in July 2134,” the cover announces.With circulation declining from a peak of 2 million in the early 1970s to roughly 200,000 an issue today, Mad discontinued two of its spin-off publications, Mad Kids and Mad Classic, earlier this year. The magazine is promising a more timely and robust Web site as a more regular feed of satire from the brand. Competitors National Lampoon and Cracked left print long ago for Web-only existence. Fittingly, the 500th issue of Mad takes a satirical jab at Google, using the search engine’s own satellite-view mapping to spy on the company. Wired magazine nabbed an exclusive reprint of the cartoon panel last week. Mad published an extensive timeline and self-history at its Web site in concert with the 500th issue. Mad was founded in 1952 by comics publisher William Gaines and one of his cartoonists, Harvey Kurtzman, as a satire of comic books in a comic book format. Beginning with issue #24 in 1955, Mad was published as a magazine instead of as a comic book, which gave the legendary editor Kurtzman a larger palette and avoided the restrictions of the industry Comics Code. Ironically, the legend of Kurtzman, who left Gaines in 1955, is being revived and celebrated during the same season his creation retreats from monthly frequency. Kurtzman went on to publish for Hugh Hefner the lush satire magazine Trump, which lasted only two issues. He then created Humbug, which lasted only a few years in the late 1950s. Both Trump and Humbug are being reprinted in hardbound versions, and a retrospective of Kurtzman’s art is being issued shortly as well. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com |
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