Great news inside for all readers

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Lew Stringer
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by Lew Stringer »

big bad bri wrote: just wondering how many issues did mad actually last and was the us vesion different to the uk version as i found a few in my cupboard the other day which i can not remember buying at all although i did buy the odd one depending on the film parody when i was a kid.
Mad is still being published in the USA and some newsagents stock it in the UK, but the British edition ended years ago.

The UK edition mainly reprinted US material but because the frequency and page count was different there were sometimes new covers done for the UK edition. There were also some clumsy redrawings to make some strips less American, such as changing a baseball scene to a cricket scene.

More info on Dez Skinn's website:
http://dezskinn.com/warner-williams/#MAD

STARBOY
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by STARBOY »

The US Mad can still be pretty good (not up there with the old classic stuff with Davis, Wood, Martin, Kurtzman, Drucker etc) but there have been some good funny issues in the recent past with Aragones, the vastly underrated Hilary Barta , Pete Bagge etc - US issues are a lot thicker and have colour pages =- sadly I hear its suffering re sales and its getting difficult to pick up in the UK in newsagents and even from specialist shops although I used to get it kept for me (will need to get it again)

Lew Stringer
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by Lew Stringer »

STARBOY wrote:US issues are a lot thicker and have colour pages =
The colour is a relatively recent addition. It used to be all black and white inside. The UK edition had gone by the time US Mad had colour.

STARBOY wrote:- sadly I hear its suffering re sales and its getting difficult to pick up in the UK in newsagents and even from specialist shops although I used to get it kept for me (will need to get it again)
Yes, I think it's quarterly now. :(

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stevezodiac
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by stevezodiac »

I think the US version had about 48 pages whereas the UK one had 32. It had no advertising for the first twenty years or so. The UK Mad started after the US version so our numbering would be different to US copies with the same cover. I have both UK and US versions of some issues. I've always had a soft spot for Mad. The TV and Movie spoofs were brilliantly drawn but the scripts were a bit "samey". Obviously not the plots but the dialogue. I have some Laugh-In magazines as well. Younger members will not know of Rowan and Martins Laugh-In but it was a groundbreaking comedy series of non-stop sketches with no music slots. Goldie Hawn started out on it - dancing in a bikini quite often. And just about every Hollywood star of the late 60s happily made fools of themselves on the show. Check it out on youtube.

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chrissmillie
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by chrissmillie »

Still sells more for Time Warner than any of DC Comics amazingly enough.
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STARBOY
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by STARBOY »

So it sells more than Batman etc? excellent news I thought it was seriously struggling hence its quarterly status

felneymike
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by felneymike »

As we're drifting off topic anyway there was a MAD imitator called Cracked, which ran for decades, shut down, came back as a Lad's mag type thing and shut down again. But now it's turned into a website called cracked.com which is rather good. You can even learn stuff there!

Lew Stringer
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by Lew Stringer »

STARBOY wrote:So it sells more than Batman etc? excellent news I thought it was seriously struggling hence its quarterly status
It went quarterly in 2009 and at the same time Warners canceled the two Mad spin off comics, Mad Kids and Mad Classics, so I don't think it could have been selling that well. Shame. I was an avid reader of the UK edition throughout most of the Seventies.
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PaulTwist
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by PaulTwist »

Mad's back to bimonthly status again now. I've recently started reading it again, after dipping in occasionally over the last 20 years or so, back in the days of British Mad. As has already been stated, the parodies are rather formulaic, but it's worth a read for the odd bit of biting satire, the "Strip Club" comic strip section and, of course, Spy vs Spy. It's hard to get hold of though, even in a city as big as Manchester - WH Smith don't stock it, and the local comic shops don't stock it, but there's a newsagents near Piccadilly Gardens that gets two or three copies in. They always sell out, too.

kiwijohn
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by kiwijohn »

Back on topic :) , here's another merger, this time between two IPC girls' comics: Jinty and the short-lived (20 weeks) Lindy.

There was something odd about the actual announcement inside the Jinty comic though, see if you can work out what it was... :wink:
Attachments
The cover of Jinty (1 November 1975, with the "Great News" on it.
The cover of Jinty (1 November 1975, with the "Great News" on it.
The merger announcement inside Jinty (1 November 1975)
The merger announcement inside Jinty (1 November 1975)
The 8 November 1975 cover of the first Jinty and Lindy.
The 8 November 1975 cover of the first Jinty and Lindy.

kiwijohn
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by kiwijohn »

The same merger again, this time with the inside editorials from the newly merged Jinty and Lindy.
Attachments
jinty + lindy 08-11-75 merged letters.jpg
jinty + lindy 08-11-75 merged editorial.jpg

kiwijohn
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by kiwijohn »

Next up, since Peter Gray and I were sort of discussing this one:
the merger of Whoopee and Shiver and Shake in late 1974 - I note IPC took advantage of this one to shrink the page count of Whoopee from 40 to 32... :(

I kinda agree with Peter that Whoopee did well out of this one, especially in gaining Ken Reid and his World Wide Weirdies page. I would have bought these for that page alone. Mind you, the previous "Wanted" poster page in Whoopee had its moments too.
Whoopee also gained Frankie Stein, who became a mainstay of the title along with the wonderful Sweeny Toddler.

Shiver and Shake turned into a comic centre "Shiver Section...It's Haunted" which lasted for more than a year before being quietly dissolved.
Attachments
cover announcement from Whoopee
cover announcement from Whoopee
first page of the merger announcement in Whoopee
first page of the merger announcement in Whoopee
second page of the two page merger announcement in Whoopee
second page of the two page merger announcement in Whoopee

kiwijohn
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by kiwijohn »

These pics include the cover of the first merger Whoopee and Shiver and Shake from 12 October 1974, along with the Whoopee editorial page talking about the upcoming merger. I've also uploaded a scan of the first page of the "Shiver Section" - but you'd better be careful cos "It's Haunted" :lol:
Attachments
Editorial from the pre-merger Whoopee, 5 October 1974.
Editorial from the pre-merger Whoopee, 5 October 1974.
Cover of the first merged issue. 12 October 1974.
Cover of the first merged issue. 12 October 1974.
First page of the Shiver Section from the newly merged Whoopee and Shiver and Shake 12 October 1974.
First page of the Shiver Section from the newly merged Whoopee and Shiver and Shake 12 October 1974.
Last edited by kiwijohn on 26 May 2011, 01:33, edited 1 time in total.

kiwijohn
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by kiwijohn »

And for those who don't know what the fuss is about, here are pics of the last Wanted poster from Whoopee (5 October 1974), and the first World Wide Weirdies from Whoopee and Shiver and Shake (12 October 1974).
Attachments
the last Wanted Poster.
the last Wanted Poster.
the first World Wide Weirdies
the first World Wide Weirdies

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Digifiend
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Re: Great news inside for all readers

Post by Digifiend »

kiwijohn wrote:Next up, since Peter Gray and I were sort of discussing this one:
the merger of Whoopee and Shiver and Shake in late 1974 - I note IPC took advantage of this one to shrink the page count of Whoopee from 40 to 32... :(
So the page count dropped but the price stayed the same? What a cheek! At least when the Beano, Dandy, and I presume many other comics did that during World War 2, they had an excuse (paper rationing). What was IPC's excuse for this one?

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