The Mad Files

tabletmag.com

22 pointsprismatic3 comments

Lovely excerpt that gives a good general overview of Mad history and highlights!

I was an avid reader as a child in the late 60s to early 70s. I eventually moved on to National Lampoon as a teen, but Mad will always glow in my childhood memory heart.

I still have a decent-sized collection of Mad paperbacks. Many (most, all?) were written by a single Mad artist/writer. My favorites of these were ones written by Don Martin and Al Jaffee.

I learned to read by sitting on my dad's lap and sounding out the effects from "Don Martin Drops 13 Stories". Thought I didn't understand what I was looking at, the sounds were the funniest thing ever to little me. I had to track down a copy of my own to show my kids when they were little, and they felt the same way.

I (dis)credit Mad for developing a lifelong mix of sarcasm with sincerity, skepticism with optimism. It was exactly the right food for my young brain.

>> lifelong mix of sarcasm with sincerity, skepticism with optimism

Love this, perfectly said. Or, in the words of Don Martin, Thook Zak Splak KWOP!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com