Nestled the rolling hills of rural Massachusetts. swathed by manicured grounds, sits the Norman Rockwell Museum. And there, side-by-side with the wholesome works of America’s most beloved illustrator, is the world’s dumbest cover boy: Alfred E. Neuman.
“It’s sacrilegious! It’s an outrage!” laughed political cartoonist Steve Brodner. “But I do think if Norman Rockwell were here, he’d laugh his head off. He’d think this was fantastic.”
These hallowed halls are now home to the world’s largest exhibit of artwork from Mad Magazine, co-curated by Brodner. “I was formed by Mad,” he said. “My idea of comedy, humor, irreverent drawing comes from this.”
Mad began in 1952 as a comic book that made fun of other comic books. But if you came of age during Mad’s peak – the sixties, seventies and eighties – you know what it became: A hilarious guide to the hypocrisy of the authority figures in your life, whom Mad kept characterizing as idiots. “I know! Isn’t that marvelous?” said Brodner…