• by Joe Mandese , June 26, 2024

In preparation for his just-published book chronicling all things New York City -- including Madison Avenue -- from the 1970s through the 1990s, I sat down (via Zoom) for an interview with Stan Mack.

Stan, whom readers of MediaPost likely recall from the multi-year run of his "Real MAD" strip here, was a pioneer of a new form of journalistic storytelling via his "Real Life Funnies" comic strip in the Village Voice, which was really just a compelling visual -- and typically hilarious -- form of observational journalism.

As a kid who grew up reading Stan's strips in the Village Voice, Stan became a personal hero of mine, and was my greatest influence in becoming a journalist myself, albeit the text-based kind. (I cannot draw.)

So getting to edit him for a number of years at MediaPost, and working in the same vicinity as him during our years at Adweek magazine, have been a full circle moment for me personally.

Originally, this video interview was broken into three parts -- an introductory Q&A, a section in which Stan gives readers a visual walk-through of his new book, and a wrap-up interview.

I'm just publishing Stan's book presentation here today so as not to get in the way of the most meaningful part, which is Stan's actual work.

I'll follow up with the Q&A part in tomorrow's edition.

Meanwhile, you should know "Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies" does actually exist IRL, and can be purchased in your local bookstore or online at Fantagraphics or Bookshop.