An American humor magazine founded in 1952 by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, launched as a comic book series before it became a magazine. It was widely imitated and influential, affecting satirical media, as well as the cultural landscape of the 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than two million during its 1973–74 circulation peak.
The magazine, which is the last surviving title from the EC Comics line, publishes satire on all aspects of life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. Its format is divided into a number of recurring segments such as TV and movie parodies, as well as freeform satire articles about normal everyday occurrences that are changed to seem humorous. Mad's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, is typically the focal point of the comic books cover, with his face often replacing that of a celebrity or character who is lampooned within the issue.
Over the course of 67 years, from 1952 until 2018, Mad published 550 regular magazine issues, as well as scores of reprint "Specials", original-material paperbacks, reprint compilation books and other print projects. After AT&T acquired Time Warner in June 2018, Mad ended newsstand distribution, continuing in comic-book stores and via subscription, and slashed its new content in standard issues (save for end-of-year specials), with the regular magazine almost entirely utilizing curated reprints with new covers, although minimal amounts of new content exists in each issue.
