MAD Magazine

MAD Magazine & DC Comics

MAD cover, 2007 issue (photo cred: madmag.com)

Thesis: MAD magazine is a multimedia text, deriving from the original Educational Comic book publishing company, before it was renamed (and still is today) DC Comics. The first issue was published in 1955. With the use of satire, this magazine addresses a wide range of topics including political, cultural, and social issues. It's audience is mainly directed at young men and adults, although there have been the production of MAD Kids and MAD Classics to attract children and the older generation of comic lovers.

Five Facts:

1. This specific issue addresses the cultural problem of video game addiction to teens, by perceiving the World of Warcraft consuming the lives of young people through a comic strip.

2. There are multiple fake adds and comics depicting the oil spill scandals and satirizing the BP gasoline industry.

3.There are even the supposed "deleted passages" of George Bush's new biography, which are extremely comical.

4. This issue displays the cover story as a satirical Glee issue, where there is a page length comic strip satirizing the show and its musical

5. There are Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson hyperbole comics, showing their flaws and bad publicity which was been in the media for the past coupe of years. Lohan's drug problem and Gibson's religious beliefs.

Triune Brain: With the use of a wide variety of colors and images, specifically in the comic strips and cover of the magazine, the limbic brain is intrigued with appealing and attractive images to see and read, while the neo-cortex is at work by processing the satire to form sensible logic.

8 Trends: MAD has converged from EC comics in the early 1940's to DC comics, from then on it had produced a TV series, MAD TV, and is now available via internet for easier access to prior issue highlights (found here). A technological shift has as well occurred, changing the classic comic book strips to access to online videos displaying comics "coming to life" online. MAD has gone through an economic shift, once starting out as a small comic book company, and leading up to its current ownership by Warner Brothers.

7 Principles: With the use of productional techniques, the visuals in the magazine and comic strips are made to attract the audience and veer toward an inviting, fun page. The ownership involved in such a mass company which has a wide variety of smaller sections, which include DC Comics (where Superman and Spiderman were born), leading up to Warner Brothers whom own it all. MAD uses the principle of reality construction to portray a one sided point of view to poke fun at and affect a certain member of a specific party.

29 Persuasive Techniques: Besides the obvious humorous technique which floods the pages of this magazine, there is evident use of name calling directed at specific celebrities to get a point across, as well as hyperbole to expand the ridiculous accusations. The repetitive appearances of MAD's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman (a fictional character), displayed throughout each issue gives readers a simple recognition and familiarity of MAD and the mascot's face. He is formally known as the "What? Me worry?" kid. There is even nostalgia evident in each issue where they refer to classic comics from decades ago.

DC Comics gang (photo cred: damnhotcomics.com)