History of the Indian MAD Magazine

In 1998 “Gotham Comics” of India began regular monthly issues of Superman, Superman Adventures, Batman, Batman Adventures and MAD. Though, Superman and Batman had been published in India, prior to 1998, this was the first time MAD had been published. The paper had a glossy finish & the majority of the pages were in black and white. With the exception of the issue number, month and price, the issues are mostly the same as the corresponding US issues. For the remaining DC Comics titles, Gotham took care to reprint the earlier US issues (like the 1986’s Man of Steel by John Byrne), without any changes. In the case of MAD, however, Gotham wanted to latch on to popular media of that time, so the issues reprinted were current to the corresponding US publication dates. Gotham Comics ended their entire publication business sometime in late 1999 & “Mad Magazine” #20 was the last issue. Turn the page a few years later and in January 2002, Gotham revived itself, once again publishing DC (including Mad), Marvel and Dark Horse Comics for sale in the Indian sub continent. The comics where set at a lower price and the overall size was smaller. The titles published at that time included Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Marvel Comics Presents, Tarzan, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and Cartoon Cartoons featuring Johnny Bravo. All issues (including the previously published Superman & Batman series) began with a #1. In the case of MAD, the publisher ‘s decided to continue where they left off and when they resumed they started with issue #21. The trim size was the same as standard MAD, the pages had a matte finish and there were more color pages inside. To date, there have been a total of 54 known India regular issues of “Mad”. In addition, there has been one free giveaway magazine with a giant pack of Maggi noodles and two “Super Specials” (one featuring Spy Vs Spy and the second featuring Don Martin) published. For some unknown reason Gotham Comics stopped publishing after only 54 issues.

Till now, the (documented) issues of Indian MAD are:

MAD Magazine Issues 1-54

MAD Specials issues 1 (Spy Vs Spy) & 2 (Don Martin Special)

MAD free give away book with Maggi Noodles (Spy vs Spy)

Author: Aalok Joshi
Reviewed by: Gary L. Kritzberg

Update from November 2017:

I have personally not seen an issue beyond #54 and I believe there *just* could have been an issue #55 and the probability of there being an issue #56 are very few. At the time of printing of issue 54, Gotham Comics had more than 30 miscellaneous titles from various companies. The very next month, they printed the final issues of a lot of those titles and if required, more than one issue of a few titles to complete their respective storylines. So there could have been a #55. Then there was a hiatus of six months….post which they restricted their printing run to around 13-15 issues per month. I didn’t see MAD in that line up.