MAD magazine will be leaving newsstands after 67-year run

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

MAD, the long-running satirical magazine that influenced everyone from “Weird Al” Yankovic to the writers of “The Simpsons,” will be leaving newsstands after its August issue. Really.

The illustrated humor magazine – instantly recognizable by the gap-toothed smiling face of mascot Alfred E. Neuman – will still be available in comic shops and through mail to subscribers. But after its fall issue it will just reprint previously published material.

The only new material will come in special editions at the end of the year.

DC, the division of Warner Brothers that publishes the magazine, said MAD will pull from nostalgic cartoons and parodies published over the magazine’s 67-year run.

As Neuman would say, “What, me worry?” Worry not, for MAD has more than 550 issues packed full of political parodies and edgy humor to pull from.

The magazine set itself apart as a cultural beacon for decades with its unabashed tendency to make fun of anything and push conventional boundaries. One of MAD’s best-known comic series, Spy vs. Spy, featured two spies with beak-like faces and big eyes – costumes that are still regularly worn on Halloween.

DC will keep publishing MAD special collections and books.

Illustrators and comedians, including one-time guest editor Yankovic, mourned the magazine’s effective closure.

“It’s pretty much the reason I turned out weird,” he wrote on Twitter.