The MAD Files

Celebrate America's zaniest and most subversive magazine in 26 essays and comix from all-star contributors, including Roz Chast, Jonathan Lethem, and Grady Hendrix.BeforeSNL and the wise-guy sarcasm of Letterman and Colbert, beforeTheSimpsons and online memes, there was . . . MAD.A mainstay of countless American childhoods, MAD magazine exploded onto the scene in the 1950s and gleefully thumbed its nose at all the postwar pieties. MAD became the zaniest, most subversive satire magazine ever to be sold on Americas newsstands, anticipating the spirit of underground comix and zines and influencing humor writing in movies, television, and the internet to this day.Edited by David Mikics, The MAD Files celebrates the magazines impact and the legacy of the Usual Gang of Idiots who transformed puerile punchlines and merciless mockery into an art form. 26 essays and comics...