MAD Magazine moves to bimonthly schedule in June

MAD Magazine will shift from a quarterly to a bimonthly schedule beginning with June’s Issue 504, according to a letter sent to contributors by Editor John Ficarra.

“Bimonthly isn’t the same as monthly,” cartoonist and MAD contributor Tom Richmond wrote this morning, “but it beats quarterly by exactly 50%!”

The venerable humor magazine moved from a monthly to a quarterly schedule in April 2009 following massive cutbacks at parent company Warner Bros. that resulted in the elimination of 800 jobs worldwide, including positions at DC Comics. MAD Kids and MAD Classics were axed in the belt-tightening.

“I have no idea what’s behind the decision,” cartoonist Evan Dorkin wrote today on his blog, “but it’s welcome news, and I’m sure a number of the ‘gang of usual idiots’ will be pleased to have more assignments after a meager year’s run. As a smaller fish in the gang who mostly does occasional small spot illo gigs, I wasn’t really affected by the changeover. But I felt badly for the ‘usual gangsters’ who likely depended on the steadiness of the monthly schedule, losing eight issues of material had to hurt some people.”