This is a bit off topic for Mark Twain, although I think he would have been a Mad reader, at least in his misspent youth, as I was. Judith Lee and I are co-editing a book-length collection of essays on Mad, building on our special issue of Studies in American Humor of a couple of years ago. We still need to cover a few topics:

1. Spy vs. Spy—covering its humor, satire, and art, and relating that to historical context, preferably the Cold War, when the feature began
2. Television parodies—need not (and could not) be comprehensive, but should have some unifying principle, whether that be a decade, a theme, or a genre, or some other principle.
3. Film parodies—the same as above. We have an essay that will cover West Side Story and its effect, but this topic is so big that we could use another essay.
4. If you have another topic, pitch it to us with a short proposal and we will see if it will fit.

We would need finished essays by late in the fall, date negotiable. We have a major university press who is very interested in the book project, and two others who have also expressed interest. This will be the best academic study of Mad and a valuable, interesting book. Please email Judith and me with proposals or ideas. Thanks!

Judith Lee [log in to unmask]
John Bird [log in to unmask] 


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