John Carpenter Blames Southern California Earthquake on MAD Magazine Cancellation

Filmmaker John Carpenter has contributed a number of masterpieces to the horror genre, which are not only impressive achievements in their own right, but he has also inspired countless filmmakers to embrace his stylistic sensibilities. While many of his fans look to him for his take on contemporary horror films, he spends more time on social media discussing video games, comic books, and sports. Early on July 4th, Southern California felt a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, the largest such event in the area since 1994's 6.6 earthquake. Carpenter took to social media with his signature wit, claiming that the event was the result of MAD Magazine's publication cancellation.

"6.4 earthquake hits Southern California," Carpenter shared on Twitter. "God punishes us for the cancellation of Mad magazine."

News of the magazine's demise emerged earlier this week, though the outlet itself has yet to release an official statement. A source revealed to ComicBook.com that, while it will continue to publish physical magazines, these will feature archival content. The series has been in publication for 67 years.

The final issue to hit newsstands will be issue #9 in August, with issue #10 only being available via direct market comic book retailers and subscriptions. The publication will also continue to produce year-end issues and various other special editions, with future issues containing vintage MAD content featuring new covers.

It's unclear exactly why the publication is coming to an end, other than it being yet another example of the shifting landscape of media, as various other satirical outlets can publish content online to get to readers more quickly.

Fans of Carpenter, on the other hand, may have earned some good news in recent weeks with reports emerging that a Halloween sequel will begin shooting later this year. Carpenter directed and co-wrote the original film, in addition to composing its score. He returned to the franchise for the first time in more than three decades with last year's sequel, on which he served as a producer and composer.

As far as when we'll see the filmmaker return to the directing chair, Carpenter teased earlier this year that he's waiting for just the right project to come together to mark his return.

"I don't have one scheduled but I'm working on things," Carpenter shared with Collider. "I made a lot of movies and I got burned out and I had to stop for a while. I have to have a life. Circumstance would have to be correct for me to do it again. I'd love to make a little horror film that would be great or a big adventure film. It would be a project that I like that's budgeted correctly. Nowadays they make these young directors do movie for $2 million when the movie is written for $10 million. So you have to squeeze it all in there and I don't want to do that anymore."

Stay tuned for details on MAD Magazine and Carpenter's future projects.