i watched some of the chris claremont documentary a few nights back and it turns out that jaffee was family friends with claremont's parents, so they came to him to help him get an internship at Mad... but he wouldn't do it because he said it was no place for a kid! So Jaffee connected Claremont with Stan Lee instead. Quoth Claremont "Once Stan found out I wouldn't have to be paid, I was in."
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 25 September 2019 19:06 (five years ago) link
*folds tweet in from both sides*
yup, that's Al
― mh, Wednesday, 25 September 2019 19:16 (five years ago) link
Didn't know that about Claremont/Jaffee, great story!
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 25 September 2019 20:22 (five years ago) link
Marvel bringing back Crazy magazine this week!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 17:50 (four years ago) link
Hold off on the one-shot, though. It's being collected in a couple months alongside a bunch of old-school material.
― Furter-Bursting Tater Squirter (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 18:07 (four years ago) link
unless his recent illness has slowed him down, Aragones has only missed one issue of Mad in forty years (...)
― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Friday, March 15, 2013 8:22 AM (six years ago)
Sergio's still on an unbroken run after missing that issue in 1967. Dick DeBartolo had been on an unbroken run since Jun 1966, but the new issue of the mostly-reprint version drops next week without him in it.
(Aragones is on 451 issues in a row, DeBartolo's streak ends at 459 issues.)
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Tuesday, 18 February 2020 22:51 (four years ago) link
Cool, Hadn't seen this thread before---here's my trib to the original, Kurtzman-edited Mad, with a link to early 50s pop culture investigator Robert Warshow's account of visit to Mad offices, with his young son Paul, who'd turned him on to thee rag (another link to email conversation saga w mark s and others, from which this sprang):https://thefreelancementalists.blogspot.com/2019/09/re-landscape-envy-ur-mad.html
― dow, Tuesday, 18 February 2020 23:10 (four years ago) link
feels unbelievable that this was only three years ago
https://www.comixexperience.com/savagecritics/retailing/the-case-against-dan-didio
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, July 5, 2019 5:54 AM (seven months ago)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160729181105/http://www.savagecritic.com/retailing/the-case-against-dan-didio/
Four years.
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Saturday, 22 February 2020 01:43 (four years ago) link
It sad, he was a publishorhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxoEpVDGvPE
― Hot, Now, and Oh-So-Very Wow! (Old Lunch), Saturday, 22 February 2020 02:06 (four years ago) link
RIP Mort Drucker
There is a devastating satirical piece in MAD, it is devastating pic.twitter.com/qpFkicJBxu— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) April 10, 2020
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Friday, 10 April 2020 18:01 (four years ago) link
Superb caricaturist! we'll miss him.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 10 April 2020 18:36 (four years ago) link
https://www.madcoversite.com/ugoi-mort_drucker.htmllove that the accompanying drucker pic is a perfect drucker-ish background character
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, 12 April 2020 21:09 (four years ago) link
https://www.cbr.com/mad-magazine-al-jaffee-final-fold-in/
― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Friday, 12 June 2020 16:16 (four years ago) link
https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/final-fold-in-1591812108.jpg
https://static3.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/solved-1591812305.jpg
― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Friday, 12 June 2020 16:18 (four years ago) link
There is such a thing as a spoiler alert!
― nickn, Friday, 12 June 2020 16:20 (four years ago) link
According to the link it's a parody of Bounty Law.
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:11 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
probably upthread already but https://www.tomrichmond.com/the-tarantino-story-part-3-bounty-law/06/08/2019/
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:21 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Actually Mad is still going, sort of:
After AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018, Mad ended newsstand distribution, continuing in comic-book stores and via subscription, and slashed its new content in standard issues (save for end-of-year specials), with the regular magazine almost entirely utilising curated reprints with new covers, although minimal amounts of new content exist in each issue.I only know this because I saw a newish issue at a local comic book store the other day.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:29 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
The issue after the Bounty Law one was the last issue of new material.
(#10, because in a move typically measured and thoughtful of the Nelson / Didio era, AT&T made the entire staff redundant, abandoned the Manhattan office with iirc years left on their lease, and restarted the numbering from scratch with new Burbank hires a year before being surprised that this had somehow cost money.)
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:45 (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:46 (two years ago) link
It's crazy to me that they did that ^ .. like, did they think what Mad fans wanted was a BREAK with its glorious past? Insane.
Speaking of the past, I have to say that six issues a year of reprints sounds...... pretty good?
I also have to say that a hardback copy of brand-new spoofs of classic movies like The Thing, done by Tom Richmond and Desmond Devlin sounds..... great??
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/claptrap-movie-spoofs-in-a-classic-humorous-vein/x/27777512#/
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 5 October 2021 14:54 (two years ago) link
Al Jaffee is 101!!!!!
― Otto Insurance (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 14 March 2022 13:33 (two years ago) link
*squints to see what phrase would say if I folded it*
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Monday, 14 March 2022 13:40 (two years ago) link
It was on a deep dive into Match Game during the pandemic that I discovered that Dick DeBartolo is gay and married! The news thrilled me more than I thought it would.
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Monday, 14 March 2022 13:46 (two years ago) link
s quints to see what phrase would say if I folded itI can tell you if you pay mebczA FEE IS 11
― beepy fridges (sic), Monday, 14 March 2022 15:41 (two years ago) link
I'm getting these issues now by the way and they're great. The last one was themed around dogs and pets. I'm pretty sure the fold-ins are new. They're not by Jaffee but they're terrific.
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 14 March 2022 15:53 (two years ago) link
There should be a collected omnibus of fold-ins that miraculously don't cause the page to deteriorate when you fold them. The fold-ins ruined all my old MADs as a kid.
My 7yo daughter has spent the pandemic era getting more and more obsessed with Beano. Kind of wish MAD was still an ongoing thing like it was in the 80s when I read it, as I think it'd be the perfect next step in her comics voyage, and would generally fit her level of cynicism.
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Monday, 14 March 2022 16:09 (two years ago) link
It's a shame, because the short-lived 'new' Mad was actually p good.
Still, there's always Viz *s
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 14 March 2022 16:14 (two years ago) link
God, she'd love Viz. Not for a couple more years though!
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Monday, 14 March 2022 18:29 (two years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/CPSBCN9.jpg
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 28 April 2022 10:46 (two years ago) link
Not directly Al's work but
The regular backpage ad from Sundazed for the latest issue of Ugly Things is a proper Al Jaffee fold-in salute. Little surprise as to what it folds into. pic.twitter.com/UB4EmZQN1Y— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) April 28, 2022
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 28 April 2022 16:27 (two years ago) link
To me, hinged feet are the apex of visual comedy.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 28 April 2022 16:34 (two years ago) link
Who did the Rogan one (and can we see it pre-fold)?
― beepy fridges (sic), Thursday, 28 April 2022 17:39 (two years ago) link
Sorry sic I failed to capture it before my children lost it somewhere.
The latest edition is A MAD LOOK AT GREED and it is excellent. Honestly I have such a blast reading these. No ads. Just like the old days. The pages are slightly slicker. There are no Don Martin comics sadly, I guess he must have retained republishing rights.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 16 June 2022 21:30 (two years ago) link
I should emphasise there are no original pieces in these editions apart from the fold-in and the cover.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 16 June 2022 21:42 (two years ago) link
I don't know if his children managed to negotiate rights away from AT&T in the last few years somehow, but as semi-discussed upthread, not having any republishing rights was the reason he quit 35 years ago
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Friday, 17 June 2022 06:19 (two years ago) link
I think Martin (and other Mad artists) retained some rights to the original paperback books they produced for Mad (or Warner Bros books), but not on the strips that appeared in the magazine itself.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 17 June 2022 07:11 (two years ago) link
in that case i don’t get it. I haven’t seen any Martin strips in the three issues I’ve gotten so far. Maybe just coincidence but he’s such a fan favourite.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 17 June 2022 07:58 (two years ago) link
Did he do strips about greed? Also remember that most of those fans are dead, and the living ones have no way of knowing that 2pp of his work from 50 years ago is in a magazine they don't know where to buy
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Saturday, 18 June 2022 06:17 (two years ago) link
harsh! I mean you could say that about everything in these current issues. And you’d probably be right. But if they’re making them they might as well get Martin in there imo.
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 18 June 2022 08:18 (two years ago) link
is there anything else in the issues being sold on the fan favourite status of its illustrator, rather than the topic, tho (I haven't seen them and I don't know if there are Martin strips about greed and I strongly agree in principle that Martin strips would likely be a good thing to have in themed grab-bag Mad compilations if they fit the theme. BUT)
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Saturday, 18 June 2022 08:23 (two years ago) link
I still recall how epochal a moment it was when Martin jumped ship for Cracked (thankfully at a time when I was regularly buying both, like any proper preadolescent of that era).
― When the Pain That You Feel is the Bite of an Eel, That's a Moray (Old Lunch), Saturday, 18 June 2022 15:58 (two years ago) link
sic presumably the only people buying these are the nostalgic superfans like me so your suggestion that “fan favourite” artists would be of no account to the compilers is a strange one by my lights
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 18 June 2022 16:21 (two years ago) link
Newsstand distribution is an insanely inefficient way of reaching superfans in 2022!(who are not yet dead but tbf old enough to have forgotten that they bought the three-volume HC box set of their favourite artist in 2007)Almost by definition it is only able to reach casual fans at best — how would a superfan even know what was being released, let alone where to find it? — and theming the collections on subject seems designed specifically to appeal to a general audience on top of nostalgists.
― Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Saturday, 18 June 2022 17:05 (two years ago) link
70th anniversary issue is out now, with much more new material than usual, including a COVID-19 gag from Sergio Aragones! Nice letter from Jordan Peele about the fake Mad cover they mocked up for Nope, and a nice letter from Weird Al about his favorite ever Al Jaffee gag. Also: a DOUBLE fold-in!
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 23 October 2022 15:36 (one year ago) link
Yeah, really nice issue with a good balance between old and new stuff, although should've been more Kurtzman Kontent. In a way it would be a good one to go out on (I think this is the last time Kuper is going to be doing new Spy v Spy material?)
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 23 October 2022 16:29 (one year ago) link
i would like to see sergio get a National Arts Medal
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 23 October 2022 22:13 (one year ago) link
Happy 102nd Birthday, Al Jaffee!
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 13 March 2023 15:35 (one year ago) link
Fold-in reveals he's only 12.
― dinnerboat, Monday, 13 March 2023 18:30 (one year ago) link
loll
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 13 March 2023 18:43 (one year ago) link
vg+
― Mark G, Monday, 13 March 2023 18:53 (one year ago) link
Haha
― Think Fast, Mr. Mojo Risin’ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 March 2023 19:40 (one year ago) link
:(
I'm very sad to report that the great Al Jaffee has died. He had celebrated his 102nd birthday just last month. An incredible legend. RIP to a giant of cartooning. pic.twitter.com/FzZk7wGebd— Tom Heintjes (@Hoganmag) April 10, 2023
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 10 April 2023 20:45 (one year ago) link
Hero.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 April 2023 21:07 (one year ago) link