On April 1, 2018—Alfred E. Neuman's birthday—MAD Magazine relaunched with a new first issue from its relocated headquarters in Burbank, CA. I was given the opportunity as Design Director to redesign the logo, one that had largely gone unchanged for 63 years. The redesign was inspired by Harvey Kurtzman's original MAD comic book logo from 1952, in recognition of MAD's history and longevity.
For volume two of MAD, the contents page became a two-page spread, the artwork and design reflecting the cover and theme of each respective issue.
JASON EDMISTON ORIGINAL ART
Our second issue from California was a tribute to our new (sorta) home, Hollywood. The cover is an homage to MAD's previous cover spoofs of both The Poseidon Adventure and Titanic. But instead of the ocean, Alfred is inverted in the cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Surrounding him are the signatures of several of MAD's illustrious illustrators, including Mort Drucker and Al Jaffee.
ERIC JOYNER ORIGINAL ART
This cover appeared on newsstands at the height of the #metoo movement. It was our first West Coast cover by Mark Fredrickson, MAD's longest running cover artist.
MARK FREDRICKSON ORIGINAL ART
Halloween is a BIG deal in Los Angeles, so we wanted to go all-out for our new hometown. Our "haunted humor" issue was a fun departure from the more traditional MAD fare. Suzy Hutchinson, our goulish, ghastly-but-never-girly Art Director, played a big part in making MAD cool again. Our combined efforts, along with Gary Pullin's art, led to this cover winning a 2018 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award.
GARY PULLIN ORIGINAL ART
The MAD 20 is our annual recap of "The Year's Dumbest People, Places, & Things," a tradition dating back to 1998. Our 2018 cover model was a bright-orange no-brainer. This issue is the best-selling issue of "new" MAD thus far.
MICHAEL KOELSCH ORIGINAL ART
SCOTT ANDERSON, DEAN MACADAM,
BILL MORRISON, CHRIS WAHL,
PAUL WEE, TERRY WOLFINGER ORIGINAL ART
This cover is one of my favorites. Artist M. Wartella came up with the idea and then meticulously painted the backcround cubes and then, seperately, each individual Alfred E. Neuman. I suggested that we wrap the pattern around and onto the table of contents spread, culminating in one, gigantic cube. Wartella liked the idea, and then graciously allowed me to arrange the Alfreds on both pieces. This was a really fun collaboration. Thanks, M!
M. WARTELLA ORIGINAL ART
At this point, I had tried to present the new MAD logo in as many different ways as possible—hot pink neon tubes, gold shiny metal—but artist Chris Wahl took it to a whole new level on the cover of issue seven, rendering the new logo for the first time in 3D.
CHRIS WAHL ORIGINAL ART
When Art Director Suzy Hutchinson and I created covers together, we wanted people to be able to see them from across the room. When there are 1,000 magazines on the newsstand, we loved to produce images that would stand out and get noticed. This one did the trick.
JASON SEILER ORIGINAL ART
The redesigned contents pages provided several opportunities to repurpose art throughout MAD's colorful history. This spread features a hippie version of Alfred E. Neuman from the 1969 edition of The MAD Reader (artist unknown).
Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, features Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, star of the fictional, early 60's TV western Bounty Law. The filmmakers wanted to display a vintage Rick Dalton MAD cover in the movie. Enter longtime MAD artist Tom Richmond, who perfectly delivered. Meanwhile, at the magazine, we decided to also run the artwork on our own cover, timed to the release of the film. I suggested that we emulate a vintage issue of MAD, including reverting to the classic logo from the 60's and giving the pages an aged look.
TOM RICHMOND ORIGINAL ART
