MAD ABOUT THE SIXTIES: The Best of...

MAD ABOUT THE SIXTIES: The Best of the Decade compiled by Grant Geissman (Little, Brown: $19.95 (Cheap!); 240 pp., illustrated, paperback original). Although it began in 1952 as a spoof of comic books, Mad magazine blossomed into a vehicle for social and political satire during the ‘60s. Eager to challenge any entrenched authority, the Mad staff (“The Usual Gang of Idiots”) gleefully lampooned both conservatives and liberals. Film remakes have given new relevance to their satires of “The Fugitive,” “Batman” and “Star Trek,” and a surprising number of articles in this collection retain their edge. Mad set a standard for irreverence no magazine can match today--not even its own current incarnation.