After industry and government pressures had forced Bill Gaines
to shut down most of his EC titles, Feldstein was only briefly separated from
the company. When Harvey Kurtzman left Mad in 1956, Gaines
turned to his former editor Feldstein, who spent the next 29 years at the helm
of what became one of the nation's leading and most influential magazines.
Circulation multiplied more than eight times during his tenure, peaking at
2,850,000 in 1974, although Mad declined to three quarters of that figure by
the end of his time as editor.
Many new cartoonists and writers surfaced during Feldstein's
editorship as the magazine came to rely on a steady group of contributors.
Feldstein's first issue as editor (#29) was also the first issue to display the
twisted work of cartoonist Don Martin. A few months later, he hired Mort
Drucker, who quickly established himself as their premier caricaturist on movie
satires with Angelo Torres drawing the TV parodies. By 1961, with the
introduction of Antonio Prohías and Dave Berg, he had fully
established the format that kept the magazine a commercial success for decades.
The Catacombs extends its condolences to his family, friends
and fans. I count myself lucky to have had a chance to meet him just a few
years ago.
2 comments:
He was such a nice man. Dealt with him once buying a piece of art from him. We chatted a bit back and forth. Such a thoughtful man. RIP.
I met Al one time at the Atlanta Dragoncon and found he was a very likable guy. Up until I met him I resented him for taking over MAD from Harvey Kurtzman and dismantling the "Humor in a Jugular" vein style of humor and rooting Harvey out of a job. Since then I found out he became MADs editor by a vacuum HK left when he had some impossible demands.
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