MAD About Star Wars: more than your average MAD anthology

MAD About Star Wars is a lot more than your typical MAD magazine anthology. The author, Jonathan Bresman, was a Lucasfilm employee before he became a senior editor at MAD, so there's a really great sense of how Lucasfilm and George Lucas (a legendary MAD Magazine fan) reacted to each of the many spot-on, hold-your-gut parodies MAD ran over the years. The book is liberally sprinkled with sidebar anaecdotes telling stories of MAD and Lucas's relationship to each other (for example, the Lucasfilm legal department sent a threatening letter to MAD about one of their parodies; the same parody generated a personal fan-letter from George Lucas -- MAD simply sent copies of each letter to the other sender and the problem went away), including the many times a MAD parody about tatty Star Wars merch or franchising was outdone by actual licensed products and sequels. Bresman also pokes fun at MAD's own propensity for cheap shots, counting all the limp light-saber jokes and other repeated gags that show up in each new parody.

Thirty years of Star Wars generated thirty years of great material for MAD, and this volume collects the very best of it, annotating it with background and inside info. It's just the thing to remind yourself of why MAD rules -- or to turn on a young Star Wars fan to decades worth of loving lampoons. MAD About Star Wars

Update: Bonnie Burton sez, "We did a lot of interviews with the authors and the old MAD magazine crew: It's a MAD MAD MAD MAD Galaxy (Interviews with Mort Drucker and Dick DeBartolo); The Usual Gang of Jediots: MAD About Star Wars (Interviews with David Shayne and Jonathan Bresman)"

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Ugly Canuck

No one seems to agree with me that the Star Wars six-pack, taken together, is a magnificent achievement in the history of film.
That Lucas is an adult fan of Mad magazine only reinforces my opinion in that regard.
Bonnie

Thanks for adding my update Cory!
I have to say this is one of my favorite books right now. I loved MAD growing up, so it was fun to see the old covers and Star Wars jabs.

Other MAD fans may want to check out Dick Debartolo’s funny memoir about his days working at MAD magazine: “Good Days and Mad: A Hysterical Tour Behind the Scenes at Mad Magazine.”
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Days-Mad-Hysterical-Magazine/dp/1560250917

It’s an excellent account of what it really was like to work at the MAD offices with founder William Gaines and the rest of the gang. The story about their staff trip to Haiti to beg MAD’s sole Haitian subscriber to renew was worth the whole book. ;-)
Jeff

I remember sitting in a chemistry class when I was 14 reading that first Star Wars Mad. I was given a week of detention for doing so. It must have been this same time of year too.
Defiant1

Mad jumped the shark YEARS ago. Today’s version is truly suitable for wrapping fish.
Bobdotcom

I still have all three original MAD parodies tucked safely away in a binder, in a cardboard box, somewhere in the attic. I’m not worried about archival quality or anything like that — they were already tattered and worn by the time I put them away.