‘Unconditionally Mad The First Unauthorized History of Mad Magazine Parts 1 & B’ (review)

Written by Mark Arnolda
Published by Bear Manor Media

By way of full disclosure, Mark Arnold is a long-time Facebook friend, I have previously appeared with an essay of my own in one of his books, and, as of this writing I’m scheduled to appear on his podcast soon to promote my own recent book.

One never forgets one’s first.

In my case, the first issue of Mad I ever saw was stuffed halfway down the side of a couch at my friend Greg’s house when I was seven years old. Would have been 1966. While most of the humor eluded me at that stage, I remember being fascinated by this magazine that was unlike any magazine I had ever seen my parents reading! It had comics but they were in black and white, and most of the book was not comics. Grown-up stuff, I figured.

After that initial encounter with Alfred E. Neuman, I began to notice his very recognizable mug on the magazine stands but I’m pretty sure I never picked up another issue at that time. Alfie appeared on mass market paperback stands, though, too, and when I was 10 years old, I casually picked up a copy of The Mad Reader off the dime store rack while my mom shopped, and my life was changed.

The Mad Reader was the very first Mad paperback collection and went through numerous reprints with new covers.

This being 1969, the cover I got that day was Alfie as a hippie. Inside, though, this was nothing at all like what I had seen in that mag a few years earlier. This was real comics! And I even recognized one of the artists—Wally Wood—who drew T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Captain Action, and old issues of Daredevil I picked up at junk shops for a nickel each! And what he drew in the book was a parody of Superman! Superduperman!

From there it all kind of runs together as I started seeking out more of the paperbacks with the comics, even as I revisited the current magazine editions. I was beginning to get more of the humor. In fact, my sense of humor—already influenced by the likes of Nichols and May, Bill Cosby, and Steve Allen—was soon warped to great effect by the vintage Harvey Kurtzman material in the books!

Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s I bought Mad fairly regularly, if not every single issue. I also discovered 1950s E.C. Comics, how Mad fit into the big picture of that legendary company, and how E.C. fit into the history of comics books in general! So many great books on E.C. have been published since then. But nothing definitive on Mad.

Oh, there have been a few books about Mad, and certainly books on Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Gaines, and Al Feldstein all had some info on Mad. I, myself, even wrote about Wally Wood’s early Mad contributions for Fantagraphics a few years back. But Mad needed a good solid history and here, in more than 800 breezy pages over two volumes, author Mark Arnold has finally provided it.

Although technically not a traditional oral history, Mark’s Unconditionally Mad has so very many extensive and credited quotes from all the various books, magazines, and fanzines about Mad that it comes across as one anyway. Add to that several interviews done just for this book. All that’s not a bad thing, mind you, other than, as with purposeful oral histories, one sometimes gets conflicting memories rather than facts.

Mixed with all these history quotes is a fun, more-or-less issue-by-issue run-through noting various debuts, final appearances, controversies, celebrity letters, or other notable or interesting facts.

The first volume deals in depth with “my” Mad, the classic era, from Kurtzman’s beginnings through Feldstein’s long run. Volume two looks at the post Feldstein (and soon post Gaines) magazine as it remakes itself several times in an effort to be relevant in today’s society. New names, new styles of humor and art, less censorship, color, ads, to varying degrees of success.

Mark doesn’t offer a lot of opinion, but rather just lays out the facts in an easy-to-follow manner, leaving the variously quoted sources and people to speak for themselves.

A nice selection of photos included quite a few of people whose names I’ve seen for years without a clue as to what they looked like. There’s also quite a few pics of people I’ve never heard of, too.

All in all, as noted above, Mark Arnold’s Unconditionally Mad is a long overdue and much needed, wide-ranging, complete (to date, anyway) history of an American institution. Mark Arnold must have been “MAD” himself to have taken on such a project, and I know it took him a long time, but it was worth the effort.

Booksteve recommends.