Mad #396
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMad #396 (August 2000) occupies a telling moment in the magazine's long arc: it is one of the final issues published during the ad-free, black-and-white era that had defined Mad since issue #33 in 1957, a stretch widely recognized as the foundation of the magazine's identity as a shameless satirist of consumer culture. Beginning with issue #403 or #404 in 2001 — sources disagree on the precise number — Mad accepted paid advertising for the first time since the 1950s, with that outside revenue then funding a shift to color printing; #396 thus belongs to the last generation of issues that carried the purely ad-free format William Gaines had long championed. Its content — a major television-focused satire package, a parody of the WB drama 'Angel,' and a feature on MTV personality Tom Green — reflects the magazine's ongoing effort in the early 2000s to stay calibrated to the pop-cultural moment even as circulation pressures mounted behind the scenes.
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The issue was produced under the editorial stewardship that had guided Mad through its mid-to-late 1990s 'revamp' period, with longtime art director Sam Viviano having assumed that role in 1999. The cover was illustrated by Mort Drucker — Mad's most celebrated caricaturist, whose association with the magazine stretched back decades — with cover concept credited to writer John Caldwell, a pairing consistent with the magazine's standard collaborative cover process of the era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: August 2000; published by EC Comics (by this period operating under the Time Warner/DC Comics corporate umbrella).
- Cover artist: Mort Drucker — one of Mad's most enduring contributors, renowned across the magazine's history for his caricature work.
- Cover writer/concept: John Caldwell.
- Issue content centers on 'The 50 Worst Things About Television,' a multi-target satirical package typical of Mad's list-driven format.
- Includes a parody of the WB supernatural drama 'Angel' (the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off then in its second season).
- Also features a piece on Tom Green, the MTV comedian and provocateur at the height of his cultural visibility around 2000.
- The issue falls within Mad's final sustained ad-free run: the magazine had published without paid outside advertising continuously since issue #33 (1957), a policy that would end with an issue in early 2001.
- Mad remained a black-and-white publication at this point; the switch to color printing came after paid advertising was introduced in 2001, funded by that new revenue stream.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Mad about Comic Strips #[nn] (2003), Mad's Greatest Artists: Mort Drucker #[nn] (2012)
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