Photo by Matthew Dee
All summer, I had been anticipating seeing the display What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine at the Norman Rockwell Museum in western Massachusetts. It opened on June 8 and ended on October 27. My wife and I finally got there on October 26th. It was worth the trip.
In many ways, it was even better that I went with my wife because she knew far less about the history of Mad Magazine than I did. She was unfamiliar with the history of the comic book, which became a magazine to skirt the Comics Code. Moreover, she didn’t read the magazine much, though her late brother John, only 14 months older, devoured it.
So, for me, the visit was more of a pilgrimage to see the “more than 250 original illustrations and cartoons gathered from artists and collectors” created by the “Usual Gang of Idiots” and other contributors.
I suspect that some may wonder why that museum, beyond the homage MAD did of Rockwell. But it has done lots of possibly unexpected shows, including Snow White, Roz Chast, and Andy Warhol.
Irreverent
From the museum website: “‘MAD was a groundbreaking magazine that influenced generations of readers and set the bar, and the tone, for contemporary humor and satire. We are delighted to present original selections from the magazine’s brilliant, irreverent artwork that captured and lampooned nearly all aspects of American life, and we are grateful to the collectors and artists who have made originals available for this exciting installation,’ said Norman Rockwell Museum Chief Curator Stephanie Haboush Plunkett.”
Check out this MAD: Making A Magazine.
“Subversive, silly, serious, and shocking—often all at once—MAD was controversial from the start. Ostensibly geared to kids, the publication touched on the big social, political, and cultural issues of the day: from McCarthyism and the Cold War to political corruption, consumerism, and celebrity culture to the defining social and liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s that continue to reverberate today. Adored by some, criticized and attacked by others, the publication enlightened and offended in equal measure. In MAD’s pages, sharp satire fused with a penchant for silly gags and a love of the double entendre, giving the magazine its unique and often, yes, ‘MADdening’ appeal.”
Surprising
But there were a couple of surprises for me. The MAD folks wanted Norman Rockwell to create the definitive Alfred E. Neuman drawing in 1963. He considered it, but ultimately, he wrote a letter back to MAD, which is on display. He had just left the Saturday Evening Post and was now doing more serious work for the covers of Look magazine, and he just couldn’t fit it in. One can tell, though, that he was clearly flattered.
The other big surprise for me was watching the What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine video at about 5:10. Teresa Burns Pankhurst from Albany, NY (!) met John Caldwell (d. 2016), a local artist and MAD contributor, who encouraged her to submit to MAD, which she successfully did. I knew John from when FantaCo, where I worked, published his Mug Shots. John was a sweet guy, and the story totally tracks.
“‘MAD was much more than a magazine to my generation. It represented a portal to adulthood,’ reflected exhibition co-curator Steve Brodner, widely considered among today’s foremost satirical illustrators and caricaturists. ‘MAD was a heat-seeking missile designed to blow open the hypocritical core of most things. In so doing, it engendered in readers an ability to come closer to what might today be called critical thinking.”
The notion that the 
The third artist represented in the exhibit is James Warhola, Andy’s nephew, son of Andy’s brother Paul; the family kept the final A. He has done everything from paperback book covers for science fiction books of Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke to Garbage Pail Kids cards (asked to do so by Art Spiegelman of MAUS fame) to MAD magazine.