Longtime MAD magazine writer Lou Silverstone passed away recently at the age of 90. He was one of the publication’s funniest contributors. Silverstone hailed from Plainfield, New Jersey and in college, majored in accounting. He got into that field for a time but longed to try comedy writing.
He began writing for MAD in 1962 with a parody of the TV series Bonanza called, of course, Bananaz. He was one of their best authors of TV and movie spoofs.
His work appeared often in MAD until the early nineties when he joined the competition, writing for Cracked, which was then edited by former MAD associate editor Jerry DeFuccio. Silverstone eventually became co-editor there for several years. He also briefly dabbled in TV writing (Candid Camera), animation (authoring scripts for the Rankin-Bass studio, including for the Jackson 5ive cartoon show) and in comic books (writing for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents during its initial publication by Tower Comics in the sixties).
Silverstone’s involvement in T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents came about when he was writing sexy stories for men’s magazine and contacted former MAD artist Wally Wood about perhaps drawing a comic strip for one of those publications. Wood instead recruited him for the new comic he was drawing for Tower, and Lou created the character, Menthor. He also for a time assisted Al Capp with the writing on the Li’l Abner newspaper strip.
He wrote over 180 articles for the magazine between 1962 and 1990, touching on all aspects of politics, sports and American culture, and is particularly remembered for his movie and television satires. His first article was a spoof of Bonanza (“Bananaz”) in MAD #73 (1962). He also wrote the classic MAD takeoff of the 1960s Batman TV series, “Bats-Man,” in MAD #105. We honor Lou’s memory and send our sincerest condolences to his family.