It’s one of two new comic book days! What are you all getting? What are you excited for? Sound off in the comments below. While you decide on that, here’s some comic news and a review from around the web.
MAD Magazine, one of the longest-running humor publications in America, is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a can’t-miss issue!
Nearly one-half of this 56-page anniversary celebration issue (issue #28) features original content, the most since the publication’s format change in 2019. Not only are current MAD staffers creating and contributing new content, but some of the original and most beloved members of “The Usual Gang of Idiots” are returning with new features, plus original contributions from celebrity MAD Magazine fans “Weird Al” Yankovic and filmmaker/comedian Jordan Peele.
Features for this issue include:
A new wraparound cover by Mark Fredrickson
An original MAD feature from “Weird Al” Yankovic celebrating longtime MAD contributor and originator of the MAD Fold-In Al Jaffee, with art by Ed Steckley
A tribute to MAD Magazine from acclaimed filmmaker and comedian Jordan Peele, featuring the parody MAD cover used in his hit movie NOPE
“The Bathroom,” a MAD movie parody of The Batman, by longtime MAD contributors Desmond Devlin and Tom Richmond
A special two-page MAD Fold-In by Johnny Sampson that folds in on itself!
A new “Another Look at MAD” by maestro Sergio Aragonés
A “MAD-gical” history tour with Dick DeBartolo, MAD’s longest-contributing writer
An illustrated look at the classic MAD employee cruise to Bermuda by former MAD EIC John Ficarra and art director Sam Viviano
Gaze into the wonders of tomorrow, courtesy of yesterday’s MAD! It’s our far-flung future issue, in which we look back at the shape of things to come, including parodies of time-travelling sci-fi flicks like “Back to the Future” and “The Matrix.” Plus, MAD examines prognosticators like astrology, palm reading, and, just for good measure, extra sensory perception! We predict there will be a new Fold-In by Johnny Sampson, too!
The current situation has impacted events all over and that extends to the military. The USO is going virtual with its Military Virtual Programming Con which takes place on October 6-8. Headling the event is Captain America and Black Widow, aka actors Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson.
Other guests for the event include Norman Reedus (Darryl from “The Walking Dead” and star of AMC’s “Ride With Norman Reedus”), Gerard Way (lead singer of the band My Chemical Romance and creator of the Netflix series “The Umbrella Academy”) and Jon Bernthal (Marvel’s “The Punisher”) also highlight the event.
Much like you’d find at any other virtual fan convention, the USO’s event features panels that will be broadcast online. Panels include ones from the National Cartoonists Society Panel, MAD Magazine, DC FanDome, and more.
Unlike other events, this is meant for the military. For each Zoom event you’ll need to vouch that you’re a Department of Defense ID holder or dependent of one, but it’s the honor system. You will be asked to provide your installation, service branch and rank for yourself or your family member.
The weekend is almost here! What geeky things are you all doing? Sound off in the comments below. While you wait for the weekday to end and the weekend to begin, here’s some news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
(W) Usual Gang of Idiots (A/CA) Usual Gang of Idiots In Shops: Apr 22, 2020 SRP: $5.99
Don’t blow your whole wad on Coachella tickets this year-Mad #13 is making (fun of) music for $5.99 (cheap)! Laugh at acts you’d never pay to see…from the comfort of your own toilet (no porta potties necessary)! Sure, we may not have the sad crooning of Thom Yorke, but we could have a hilarious cartoon of him! Enjoy classic Mad music spoofs, plus an all-new Spy vs. Spy, “A Mad Look at…”, and more!
(W) Usual Gang of Idiots (A/CA) Usual Gang of Idiots In Shops: Feb 19, 2020 SRP: $5.99
America’s longest-running humor magazine continues to skewer everything pop culture! February’s TV-themed issue is packed with new, original content and a wide variety of vintage MAD favorites (because so many boobs have been on the tube)! Featuring a new “MAD Look at…” by Sergio Aragonés, Spy vs. Spy, and more, MAD will surely make the whole family laugh…while still managing to piss off some folks.
The weekend is almost here and we’re sure you’re spending it seeing Spider-Man: Far From Home! We know we are (again). Sound off what geeky things you all will be doing. While you wait for the workday to end and the weekend to officially begin, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web.
Numerous rumors have been swirling regarding the future of MAD Magazine in the last 24 hours with some claiming that the influential magazine was ending and others claiming they’re still making new material. As usual, the truth is somewhere in between.
While DC, the magazine’s publisher, hasn’t released an official statement, we’ve received more details from well-placed sources.
Due to lagging newsstand sales, MAD will no longer be found there. Instead, the magazine will still be available in comic shops, aka the direct market, as well as subscribers.
When it comes to new material, after issue #10 this fall, there will no longer will be new content in the monthly magazine. There WILL be new material in the end-of-year specials which will always be new.
Starting in MAD Magazine #11 it will feature “classic,” “best-of,” and nostalgic content from the last 67 years.
DC will also continue to publish MAD books and special collections.
Launched in 1952 by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines, the magazine received a relaunch and new #1 issue in 2018.
Hivemind has announced a new partnership with William M. Gaines Agent, Inc., the proprietors of EC Comics, for a number of film and television projects based on the hugely influential – and often controversial – comic book publisher’s groundbreaking legacy and library. One of the first endeavors of the partnership will be Weird Fantasy – a new television show inspired by the shocking and subversive sci-fi/fantasy series that collided visionary genre storytelling with socially conscious themes of racial and gender equality, anti-war advocacy, nuclear disarmament and ecological preservation to create some of the most impactful and hotly debated comic book stories ever produced. This is the first time that WMG Agent Inc. has made Weird Fantasy available for adaptation in more than two decades.
Changing the industry seemingly overnight in the early 1950s under the stewardship of publisher and writer William M. Gaines, EC Comics quickly became the dominant force of the era’s booming comic book industry, selling tens of millions of copies annually and generating intense, nationwide controversies with taboo-smashing, confrontational stories in series like Tales From the Crypt and MAD Magazine. EC’s unique formula eschewed superheroes in favor of science fiction, fantasy, war, horror, and humor – redefining comics storytelling with a newly sophisticated and artist-driven approach that would pave the way for the ascendancy of both Marvel Comics and the counterculture underground in the decades to come.
A lynchpin of the EC line during the publisher’s creative watershed,Weird Fantasy produced dozens of seminal stories that intersected razor-sharp social commentary with epic science fiction, high adventure and dark fantasy by some of the most celebrated comics creators to ever work in the medium, including Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, and Harvey Kurtzman. Weird Fantasy‘s defiantly rebellious sensibility is perhaps best exemplified by “Judgment Day” – a history-making story by William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein, and Joe Orlando that championed the then-burgeoning Civil Rights movement and provoked a showdown with the Comics Code Authority, the pro-censorship organization that policed and sanitized the comic book industry for more than 50 years.
The new partnership is also slated to include a feature film based on the life of William M. Gaines, the former EC Comics publisher and self-styled comics provocateur who challenged the rigid moral code of 1950s America with shockingly innovative and deeply subversive tales of fantasy, horror and humor that sold in the millions…only to find his company investigated by Congress and his books burned in the streets in the wake of EC’s staggering success. Chronicling one of the greatest untold chapters in American history, the film will follow Gaines’ transformation from a staid, New York publishing impresario into a counterculture hero, guardian of artistic freedom, and champion of the First Amendment as his darkly humorous journey through the troubled birth of the comic book industry reveals the Red Scare-era witch hunt that nearly doomed an American art form, through the subsequent founding of MAD Magazine and eventual rise of Marvel Comics in EC’s wake.
Both projects will be produced by Gaines’ daughter and grandson, Cathy Mifsud and Corey Mifsud, for EC, alongside Dinesh Shamdasani, Sean Daniel, Jason F. Brown, and Hunter Gorinson for Hivemind. The projects will mark Gorinson’s first for Hivemind, where he also has joined as VP Brand & Content Strategy.
