Everyone in the extended family that is MAD Magazine is shocked this morning at the news that Nick Meglin died this morning of a sudden heart attack. Nick worked on MAD for close to half a century, starting as an Idea Man and Writer, moving to an Associate Editor position and then to being co-editor (with John Ficarra) and then, upon his retirement in 2004, becoming a Consulting Editor. Given his wicked sense of humor, Insulting Editor might have been a better title.
Many of us are especially jarred because we spent last weekend with Nick at the National Cartoonists Society convention in Philadelphia. I had lunch with Nick a week ago today and a week ago tomorrow, moderated a MAD panel in which he participated. He was alert and funny and seemed like a guy in good health for a man of 82.
Since leaving regular duties on MAD, he has mostly been involved in writing musicals and was looking forward to the opening of the stage version of Grumpy Old Men (based on the movie) at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine in August. Nick did the lyrics for that show and for the musical Tim and Scrooge, a sequel to Dickens' A Christmas Carol, he wrote both book and lyrics.
But, getting back to MAD: I want you all to know this about my friend Nick. The sense of humor that permeated that magazine from about 1957 into the eighties was mainly Nick's. The editor of MAD for much of that period, Al Feldstein, was a skilled craftsman at producing a magazine on time and in giving the best possible presentation to the work of his freelance writers and artists…but Feldstein wasn't all that funny.
Meglin was funny. He wrote much of MAD's editorial material (intros, ads, etc.). He rewrote or punched-up articles that were in need of extra laughs. And he recognized comedic talent in writers who submitted work and encouraged them and guided them. At least half of MAD's best writers during that period were "found" by Nick as were many of its artists. When I researched my now-outta print book, MAD Art, I interviewed just about everyone who'd ever worked for the magazine and was still around to be interviewed. A lot of those folks told me that had it not been for Nick, they never would have had their proud association with the magazine.
I've talked to a few of them again today. They're all very sad about this news and so am I.