The correct phrase is sic transit gloria mundi — the glory of the world eventually fades (as I’ve discussed before). A fact that was brought to my mind by the online image of Kelly Freas’ cover for a Mad paperback from way back when (I mean, look at that 35 cent price sticker!).
I never got into Mad. Unlike most of my generation (or so it seemed as a teen) the humor didn’t work for me at all. Nevertheless it was phenomenally successful and so were the books: 93 of them came out between 1954 and 1993. Whenever I’d browse a paperback display in a newsstand or a drugstore it seemed Alfred E. Neumann was always there staring back at me. Not any more.
This doesn’t make the world worse and it’s hardly a tragedy for popular culture. It’s the way of the world: character, authors, series, almost all become obscure trivia known only to old people (like me) and particular subsets of nerddom.
Nevertheless, looking at that cover and thinking of so much of my past fading from common memory makes me feel old.
#SFWApro.
Mad still exists, sort of, in a bimonthly magazine sold only through the direct comics market that is half/mostly reprints. And I think the occasional special book that I see in supermarket checkout lines.
I read the occasional Mad Magazine (and collections like these, or my compendium of Spy vs Spy) as a kid, but I’ve found I’ve acquired more appreciation and respect for the series as an adult. Another fading American institution.