I'm pretty sure I'm of the last generation to enjoy Mad magazine as a satiric jab at the powers-that-be. I'm also probably from the last group of teenage, hormone crazed miscreants that had to forage around for a copy of Playboy magazine (on paper!) in the wilds of the neighborhood, but that's a discussion for another time. Anyway, I had pretty much given up on Mad for dead; most of their artists were dying or exceedingly old, they'd started running ads, and founder William Gaines died. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see Mad is once again kicking ass and taking names, like with this Abu Ghraib inspired cover featuring perennial poster boy Alfred E. Neuman.
I honestly think one of the main reasons I got interested in politics and history at such a young age was leafing through my dad's old copies of Mad magazine. It definitely had something to do with my cynical, exceedingly irreverent take on the world around me.
I still have all those Mad magz at home - the boy has started to go through them. They're 25, he's9 and he thinks they're funny - look out world...
heh, that means he's reading jokes about Reagan and "Battlestar Galactica 1980" (which I'm sure Mad dubs 'Battleschmucks Galactiecccchhh" or somesuch). I know I used to read about stuff like Biafra and the Tet Offensive in Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side...of guerilla warfare."
Though my personal favorite was always the Al Jaffe stuff. His insane inventions were pretty damn cool, for an eight-year-old at least.
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