To bid a fond farewell to their blow-out exhibition “What, Me Worry? 60 Years of Mad,” the Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) here in SF hosted a MADison Avenue soiree on September 6, celebrating both the satire and cynicism of Mad Magazine and the iconic fashion of Mad Men. Megan and I met up with some of our former VIA magazine cohorts for a night of live music, MADhattans, and custom caricatures by local cartoonists.
And the 50s fashions were on full display…
The CAM did an incredible job bringing together work spanning Mad’s six decades—from black-and-white Archie comics to full-color spreads of Daniel Craig. Alfred E. Neuman graced the walls alongside the Avengers and character designs from ParaNorman. That takes mad moxie!
“The skeptical generation of kids it shaped in the 1950s is the same generation that, in the 1960s, opposed a war and didn't feel bad when the United States lost for the first time and in the 1970s helped turn out an Administration and didn't feel bad about that either...Mad's consciousness of itself, as trash, as comic book, as enemy of parents and teachers, even as money-making enterprise, thrilled kids.” –Tony Hiss & Jeff Lewis,
1977