Star Trek is bidding farewell to MAD Magazine. After 67 years, the satirical magazine will cease publishing new material. The magazine made a habit of parodying icons of popular culture, and that included Star Trek.
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The Star Trek franchise tipped its hat towards MAD with a post on the official Star Trek website. “The saying goes that ‘All good things must come to an end,’” the post reads. “Star Trek ended once upon a time, and came back stronger than ever. And we can all hope the same for the print edition MAD Magazine, the iconic humor magazine that debuted in 1952 and will reportedly conclude its 67-year run in the coming weeks.”
The magazine often referred to Star Trek as Star Blecch and set its parodies of the series to music. The relationship between the two franchises goes back as far as a photo of Star Trek stars Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner reading MAD #115 filming on location for an episode of The Original Series.
Fans can head over to StarTrek.com to see a gallery of some of MAD‘s most iconic Star Trek covers. They include “The MAD Star Trek Musical” from 1976, a Star Trek II parody from 1983, a Star Trek IV parody from 1987, the MAD Star Trek Collection from 1992, and a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine parody from 1993, each featuring MAD‘s iconic mascot Alfred E. Neuman.
Disappointed by the Magazine’s cancellation, fans have taken to Twitter and launch a Change.org petition directed at publisher DC. The petition’s summary reads, “MAD Magazine has, for over half a century, been the leading satire magazine. It has been the home of many of the greatest cartoonists of all time, such as Antonio Prohías, Sergio Aragones, Peter Kuper, Duck Edwing, Bob Clarke, and more. Art Spiegelman said, “The message Mad had in general is, ‘The media is lying to you, and we are part of the media.’ It was basically … ‘Think for yourselves, kids.’” a message that is desperately needed in today’s society that blindly follows what they’re told…
“..Recently, under Bill Morrison, the magazine had begun to undergo a renaissance and received critical success, all while successfully being brought into the 21st century, but that meant nothing to DC Comics, who fired Bill to cut costs back in January.
“Now they have announced that MAD will only be publishing reruns because they no longer think the magazine is worth the cost to keep it going. Why bother to keep putting out new quality content when they can milk 70 years worth of content, and continue treating MAD like the red-headed child they only adopted to get access to the family fortune?
DC comics, either save MAD Magazine and allow more new content to be created, or sell MAD Magazine and everything ever published under the title to a company that cares about them.”
What do you think of Star Trek‘s farewell to MAD Magazine? Let us know in the comments.
