When DC COMICS first met MAD…
Well, well, well…
I was digging through my cardboard boxes of old MAD papers for stuff to write about…and lookee what I re-discovered: it’s the actual letter — signed by the former, and the current, president of DC COMICS — sent out to all of us MAD folks after they took over following the death of Bill Gaines in 1992. As I’ve helpfully highlighted, you can see where they promise, in writing, NOT to move the MAD offices from 485 Madison Ave. and NOT to discontinue the MAD Trips — both of which they subsequently did within a couple years of this letter!
Too bad they didn’t have time to write a longer letter…or they might have provided a more comprehensive list of “promises” they would later go on to break, such as:
-Not to make MAD start taking advertising
-Not to move the MAD offices for a second time in less than 15 years
-Not to discontinue MAD Xmas parties
-Not to interfere in editorial decisions
-Not to “kill” articles after they’ve been written & bought simply because someone “could possibly” sue over them
-Not to more than DOUBLE the workload while slashing the staff
-Not to sell off the last of MAD’s original cover art that’s been hanging on the office walls for decades
Keep this history of mendacity in mind whenever you read or hear something coming out of DC COMICS –or MAD itself, for that matter, since the current guys in charge seem more interested in indulging their “inner quisling” than, say, being honest and straightforward with readers and contributors about what’s really happening to the magazine. (See this very interesting post at madmumblings.com from John Hett of “The Journal of MADness” if you haven’t already.)