Thursday, May 23, 2013

A Goofier Bunch of MAD Men

Per an update this week from Detroit-based filmmaker Alan Bernstein, a feature documentary about the history of iconic MAD magazine is moving forward - slowly.

When We Went MAD! is aiming to be completed some time this year, with about 40 interviews and highlights from the 60-year-old publication's long, colorful history. Bernstein is also hoping along the way to snag a few well-known celebrities like Stephen Colbert and Howard Stern.


MAD currently comes out on a bi-monthly basis, for a yearly subscription rate of $19.99. Bernstein has wanted to do a documentary about MAD for a long time and very much regrets that one of his interview targets, illustrator Bob Clarke, recently passed away.

But he was able to visit the offices of MAD earlier this spring for planning purposes and recently told Metromode contributor Constance Crump that he still believes in the power of the publication's content:

"It's still being published. Kids are still reading it… and it still has the same effect on them as it did on us. As long as there are advertisers who are trying to sell us a bunch of lies, there'll be place for MAD," Bernstein points out.

Just how big a MAD fan is Bernstein? His production company - Potrzebie Pictures - is named after a recurring gag in the magazine's pages, where the Polish word would be inserted for no good reason into a particular comic strip or narrative blurb. When We Were MAD! 's budget includes a little over $50,000 raised via Kickstarter.

[When We Went MAD!]

1 comment:

  1. Tues 6/4/2013 Never forget that MAD is the ONLY humor magazine in the U.S. That it has ONLY
    had work-made-for-hire terms for contributors since Jan 1,1976. It reprints work dozens of times and contibutors get zero. I consider creators who sell their souls to this magazine in the same class as those idiots who were/are loyal to Hitler! Long live Don Martin...NHM

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