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The MAD Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine that Warped America's Brain!: A Library of America Special Publication
221 pages, Paperback
Published September 3, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 25, 2025
Dispatches from aliens
I was born in 1955 and grew up a nice White Anglo-Saxon Protestant kid in a nice White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family in a small town in New Hampshire. The Usual Gang of Idiots who produced MAD magazine were a bunch of scruffy New York Jews who had heard Yiddish all their lives. I could not have been less aware of that environment if MAD had been coming from a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy.
One way in which The Usual Gang was alien to me was that they read comic books and pulp magazines regularly. You've read the stories from Famous Creative People about how they used to wait outside the convenience store with lolling tongues waiting for the next issue of Marvel comics or MAD or Astounding, which they snapped up immediately. That was not me, because (1) I am not a Famous Creative People, and (2) I didn't have any cash. Paying 40 cents eight times a year for the latest issue of MAD was as far beyond my fiscal powers as buying a new yacht eight times a year.
And yet, I read comics, and MAD. Like many of the contributors to this collection of essays, I just found issues of MAD lying around -- in places my family stayed, in the homes of my friends (even though they were as impecunious as me).
They were... WEIRD ... They were really, really funny, except when they were entirely incomprehensible. Even with my very limited exposure, and even though I stopped encountering MAD in the wild at the age of 11, when my family moved to a new state, MAD left a mark on me.
Although I knew nothing of The Usual Gang, they knew me. They knew I watched I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, and My Three Sons, along with all their slick commercials. (The Madison Avenue Suits who made those commercials were a culture as unknown to eleven-year-old me as The Usual Gang, but they also knew me and talked to me.) MAD existed to skewer me and my world.
It didn't quite work -- It's hard to write or draw a take-down of water that a fish can get. But I got enough of it to be broadened (the way a loaf of bread is broadened by a streamroller) and amused.
The MAD Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine that Warped America's Brain!: A Library of America Special Publication, is a collection of essays (mostly -- there are a few comics) edited by David Mikics. Some of the authors contributed to MAD themselves -- more are artists who were influenced by MAD. To hear them tell it, MAD was foundational and fundamental to American show business. It might even be true.
I mostly enjoyed this. Occasional essays veered toward the snootily academic, but most were loving portraits of the extraordinary artists who made MAD and the extraordinary art they produced. Also, it stimulated me to dig up some collections of old MADs that are listed in a brief bibliography, e.g. MAD About the 50's. I will see whether they still take 68-year-old me anything like they did 11-year-old me.
I thank Edelweiss and Library of America for an advance reader copy of The MAD Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine that Warped America's Brain!: A Library of America Special Publication.
Blog review.
I was born in 1955 and grew up a nice White Anglo-Saxon Protestant kid in a nice White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family in a small town in New Hampshire. The Usual Gang of Idiots who produced MAD magazine were a bunch of scruffy New York Jews who had heard Yiddish all their lives. I could not have been less aware of that environment if MAD had been coming from a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy.
One way in which The Usual Gang was alien to me was that they read comic books and pulp magazines regularly. You've read the stories from Famous Creative People about how they used to wait outside the convenience store with lolling tongues waiting for the next issue of Marvel comics or MAD or Astounding, which they snapped up immediately. That was not me, because (1) I am not a Famous Creative People, and (2) I didn't have any cash. Paying 40 cents eight times a year for the latest issue of MAD was as far beyond my fiscal powers as buying a new yacht eight times a year.
And yet, I read comics, and MAD. Like many of the contributors to this collection of essays, I just found issues of MAD lying around -- in places my family stayed, in the homes of my friends (even though they were as impecunious as me).
They were... WEIRD ... They were really, really funny, except when they were entirely incomprehensible. Even with my very limited exposure, and even though I stopped encountering MAD in the wild at the age of 11, when my family moved to a new state, MAD left a mark on me.
Although I knew nothing of The Usual Gang, they knew me. They knew I watched I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, and My Three Sons, along with all their slick commercials. (The Madison Avenue Suits who made those commercials were a culture as unknown to eleven-year-old me as The Usual Gang, but they also knew me and talked to me.) MAD existed to skewer me and my world.
It didn't quite work -- It's hard to write or draw a take-down of water that a fish can get. But I got enough of it to be broadened (the way a loaf of bread is broadened by a streamroller) and amused.
The MAD Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine that Warped America's Brain!: A Library of America Special Publication, is a collection of essays (mostly -- there are a few comics) edited by David Mikics. Some of the authors contributed to MAD themselves -- more are artists who were influenced by MAD. To hear them tell it, MAD was foundational and fundamental to American show business. It might even be true.
I mostly enjoyed this. Occasional essays veered toward the snootily academic, but most were loving portraits of the extraordinary artists who made MAD and the extraordinary art they produced. Also, it stimulated me to dig up some collections of old MADs that are listed in a brief bibliography, e.g. MAD About the 50's. I will see whether they still take 68-year-old me anything like they did 11-year-old me.
I thank Edelweiss and Library of America for an advance reader copy of The MAD Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine that Warped America's Brain!: A Library of America Special Publication.
Blog review.
January 20, 2025
Although I don't recall ever owning a copy, I was a rabid reader when I got my hands on one! MAD magazine was revolutionary because it reinvented the way we look at everything. It used parodies, satire, and edgy humor (for that time) to explore contemporary life.
MAD was in a cartoonish format with many regular features and artists. And who were those artists and writers? They were almost exclusively male and most were Jews from NYC.
And who were the readers? They were predominantly male adolescents from various backgrounds.
"The Mad Files" departs from the Library of America's normal offerings. It is a collection of essays about the MAD phenomenon by various contributors, with bios for each contributor. Most articles are published in this volume, and the sources of the rest are detailed in the back of the book.
As a good Catholic boy from a small midwestern town, I had no idea that this hilarious mag would influence so many facets of future society including comedians and media. I had no idea who the self-proclaimed "Usual Gang of Idiots" was and that many of the nonsense words were actual Yiddish words.
These essays were in many ways a revelation to me and in many ways a trip down "Memory Lane"
MAD was in a cartoonish format with many regular features and artists. And who were those artists and writers? They were almost exclusively male and most were Jews from NYC.
And who were the readers? They were predominantly male adolescents from various backgrounds.
"The Mad Files" departs from the Library of America's normal offerings. It is a collection of essays about the MAD phenomenon by various contributors, with bios for each contributor. Most articles are published in this volume, and the sources of the rest are detailed in the back of the book.
As a good Catholic boy from a small midwestern town, I had no idea that this hilarious mag would influence so many facets of future society including comedians and media. I had no idea who the self-proclaimed "Usual Gang of Idiots" was and that many of the nonsense words were actual Yiddish words.
These essays were in many ways a revelation to me and in many ways a trip down "Memory Lane"
October 6, 2025
ok this is definitely not 5 stars across the board, but my recency bias for the last essay, by Chris Ware, elevates my rating. I wish the whole collection had been much more like this last essay, which was outstanding, but it was still fun to read. By far my favorite essays, besides Ware's, were those focusing on the Judaic/Talmudic nature of Mad. I also appreciated how many of the essays acknowledged the male-focus of the publication, and exceptions to that. And learning about Al Jaffee's unusual and fascinating life was a highlight. As others have noted, there's lots of repetition, and a wise reader advised me to just skip any essays I wasn't interested in, which is probably always good advice.
December 20, 2024
I loved Mad Magazine, and it certainly helped develop my sense of humor and the way
I see the world. As a child of the 1980s, my era of the magazine was not part of this academic retrospective, which focused on the first 20 glory years. I think we all tend to idolize the humor that shaped us, and decry the humor that evolved (devolved?) after our golden eras. So this collection of reflections by children of the 1950s and 1960s lifts up that era and downplays the others. That may be accurate. And it may be just more myopia born of generational preference.
I see the world. As a child of the 1980s, my era of the magazine was not part of this academic retrospective, which focused on the first 20 glory years. I think we all tend to idolize the humor that shaped us, and decry the humor that evolved (devolved?) after our golden eras. So this collection of reflections by children of the 1950s and 1960s lifts up that era and downplays the others. That may be accurate. And it may be just more myopia born of generational preference.
May 5, 2025
This series of essays, both new and from the archives, about the history of MAD magazine and its writers and artists is an interesting collection. I discovered quite a bit about the magazine's contributors, such as Jaffe, Elder, Kurtzman and Prohias, that I didn't already know but the emphasis on its Jewish origins and nature, all of which are valid, means that some talent (Wood, Davis) felt overlooked. There is also a repetitive nature across some of the essays. Nevertheless, a recommended read.
November 10, 2024
Seems a little odd to have an appreciation for MAD that doesn't include the people who actually worked on it, but the reminiscences here are usually interesting. I felt some eerie resonances when some writers about my age were talking about issues I had actually read (and apparently remember well 40 years later). There are also some insightful biographical essays about both Al Jaffee and Antonio Prohias.
July 22, 2025
Very enjoyable! Not all essays are created equal and a few of these are also a little too similar near the beginning but the ones about the history of the magazine and the lives of its writers are wonderful.
It would have been fun to see actual art from Mad included. I like Roz Chast and some of the other contributors to this book but when you're talking about Drucker, show me an example! Same with Aragones, Tohias, Martin, Berg and Jaffee. And for that matter the women who drew in the 90's when I was no longer reading it regularly
Loved this, though. Especially the 3 or 4 chapters on Jewish words and themes in the magazine.
It would have been fun to see actual art from Mad included. I like Roz Chast and some of the other contributors to this book but when you're talking about Drucker, show me an example! Same with Aragones, Tohias, Martin, Berg and Jaffee. And for that matter the women who drew in the 90's when I was no longer reading it regularly
Loved this, though. Especially the 3 or 4 chapters on Jewish words and themes in the magazine.
September 30, 2024
Lotta really neat essays in this book about MAD's indisputable impact, although after a certain number of articles, the book definitely starts to repeat itself. The earlier contributions certainly took me back to the magic of those MAD paperbacks I owned in elementary school.
March 10, 2025
Pretty light.
March 26, 2025
Disappointing. I expected better.
November 12, 2025
This strong anthology has contributors offering their reviews and personal recollections of MAD magazine, arguably the best recognized humor publication growing up for many Baby Boomers and Gen Xers in the United States. It's mostly original content for this book except for a handful of reprints. In several cases, the writers actually included interviews they did with MAD personnel to illuminate their articles. Most did a fine job here, providing a lot of information I didn't know about the magazine even from 5 books I've gotten about the subject.
So, why not 5 stars here given all that? Well, a few entries come off with the writers sounding like fan boys gushing over their favorite subject, and frankly I would have dropped them. There's also a couple of grumpy old types who insist the Kurtzman comic book format for the first 23 issues was the best for MAD and the publication thereafter, a tiresome trope and one I flatly reject.
Finally, there's Sarah Boxer’s “Mind the Gap.” It's the worst piece to me by far, a humorless summation of what she claims to hate about the magazine, finding it derivative and misogynistic. Boxer only has a few examples to defend her belief. More telling is the fact that she avoided reading the magazine growing up because she was disturbed by missing tooth gap of the publication's cover mascot, Alfred E. Newman. Really?! This article is one that tells you more about the problems with the critic rather than the subject itself.
Still, I give editor David Mikics props for including an opposing view in this collection, even if it is something as weak as this. That's the nature of the anthologies beast. You're likely to get a clinker or two you have to endure in any collection. Luckily, most of the other contributions here are much better. Highly recommended for those readers with any appreciation of American pop culture.
So, why not 5 stars here given all that? Well, a few entries come off with the writers sounding like fan boys gushing over their favorite subject, and frankly I would have dropped them. There's also a couple of grumpy old types who insist the Kurtzman comic book format for the first 23 issues was the best for MAD and the publication thereafter, a tiresome trope and one I flatly reject.
Finally, there's Sarah Boxer’s “Mind the Gap.” It's the worst piece to me by far, a humorless summation of what she claims to hate about the magazine, finding it derivative and misogynistic. Boxer only has a few examples to defend her belief. More telling is the fact that she avoided reading the magazine growing up because she was disturbed by missing tooth gap of the publication's cover mascot, Alfred E. Newman. Really?! This article is one that tells you more about the problems with the critic rather than the subject itself.
Still, I give editor David Mikics props for including an opposing view in this collection, even if it is something as weak as this. That's the nature of the anthologies beast. You're likely to get a clinker or two you have to endure in any collection. Luckily, most of the other contributions here are much better. Highly recommended for those readers with any appreciation of American pop culture.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews