Our Unmad lives

Gone are the American 'Mad', India's 'Diwana,' but our 'Unmad' is still going strong! Unmad is quite a popular magazine in Bangladesh, one that was inspired by American magazine 'Mad'. 

And even before our 'Unmad', India's 'Diwana' drew inspiration from 'Mad'. The once-sensational 'Mad' and 'Diwana' may have faded from cultural consciousness somewhere along the way, but 'Unmad' still stands and makes us laugh with witty humour and subtle comedy.

Of course, we know that the larger-than-life characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are inspired by comics. To say that these characters drew 'life' from the sketchbooks of cartoonists would be a serious understatement; these characters were always more than just sketches and cartoons. 

In more than a few ways, these cartoons and drawings packed such vividness that they could easily go toe-to-toe with the present-day anime and animated serieses. With the advent of the internet, dark humour has become prevalent. But these orthodoxy-challenging memes, jokes, and comic strips do not have equal appeal to all audiences. Obviously, you will not find the same level of dark humour on a Bangladeshi Facebook group for jokes as you would on Reddit. 

The 'politically incorrect' wave of comics took off in the US through 'Mad' several decades ago, in 1952. Exactly a decade after 'Mad', 'Diwana' came out and followed 'Mad's suit. Fast forward to 1978, Ahsan Habib launched 'Unmad'. 

'Mad' laid down the basic framework of how 'Unmad' and 'Diwana' worked in Bangladesh and India. Interestingly, the term 'mad' was already in Unmad's very name. 

'Mad'ness

The publisher of EC Comics suggested to his staff contributor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952 to launch a humour title. Thus began 'Mad's maddening journey. It first came as a comic book and then a magazine. 'Mad's first issue was titled 'Tails Circulated to Drive You Crazy'.

Harvey Kurtzman became the founding editor of 'Mad'. 'Mad' fathered this genre where the most serious issues were comically presented, even though that appeared a tad bit (or a lot) inappropriate, if not insensitive. This kind of humour also has earned itself a name in English, 'Aberrant Humour'. 

'Mad' had a mascot – Alfred E, Painted by Norman Mingo. Alfred E's comic activities were the source of the readers' hilarity. His gaping teeth, freckled face are known to every 'Mad'-reader. 

'Mad's popularity in the United States was such that Newman was oftentimes recognised by many who had never even read 'Mad'. Just like how many of us can recognize many popular characters from Indian serials even if we do not watch any.

'Mad' became an iconic voice in the US counterculture movement. By the early 1970s 'Mad's circulation rose to over 2 million copies. Mockery of famous pop culture characters and political figures was the point of amusement for Mad's audience. Starting with the Vietnam War and Watergate to Rambo, none was immune from Alfred Newman's 'madness'.

But by the end of the 20th century, Mad's popularity began to decline. Thanks to the Internet, people had other sources of entertainment. Magazinesque satire began appearing in movies like 'The Naked Gun' and shows like 'Saturday Night Live'. Online satire media like 'The Onion' were born too. 'Mad' began losing to competition from many sides.

After a 67 year long run, in 2019, 'Mad' decided to ditch newsstands. Instead, the 'Mad' authority opted for comic shops and to mail the copies directly to subscribers. However, long standing 'Mad' fans would receive new Alfred E comedy no more. Old features and cartoons would reappear in the new method of publication, bringing nothing 'new' to the table.

Diwana, Bharat

In 1964, 'Diwana' arrived to drown Indian readers in humour. 'Diwana' too had its own mascot, named Chilli. Modelled after 'Mad', Diwana, a Delhi-based media outlet, was published in both Hindi and English languages. The magazine was published till 1986.

Initially released in Hindi, the English version of Diwana also came out in the early 70s. From the middle till the end of the 20th century, the best cartoonists and illustrators of India drew cartoons for this fun magazine. At the height of its popularity in the 60s, Diwana had a circulation of two lakhs a week. The English version was edited by theatre director Som Benegal.

Apart from 'Diwana', there were a few other comical magazines in India as well. 'Lotpaat' came out in 1969 and 'Madhu Muskan' in 1972. 'Wisecrack' was also there. All these magazines left their mark on Hindi pop-culture. 

But as much as these magazines are known to people today, the opposite is the case with 'Diwana'. Diwanar has eroded from the memory of most Indians. The publishing house Tej did not preserve any copy of 'Diwana' and no trace of it could be found on the internet either.

The craze carries on

According to an interview of Ahsan Habib, he began publishing 'Unmad' in 1978 along with Kazi Khaled Ashraf and Ishtiaq Hossain. Although the naming was a clever one, it caused some problems for publishers. Because of their 'troublesome' name, it was hard to get advertisements, big companies did not want to advertise in Unmad.

Bangladeshi newspapers started publishing cartoons and comics regularly from the 90s onwards. 'Alpin', 'Bichchu', 'Adda', 'Khabor Ache', 'Therapy', 'Bhimrul', 'Durbeen', 'Ros+Alo', 'Penchal' and 'Ghorar Dim' are a famous few. But they came as supplements to the newspapers. 'Unmad' on the other hand came out as a standalone magazine.

Film producer Md Sifat Hasan read 'Unmad' since his childhood. "We kept an 'Unmad' subscription from 2007 to 2016. But before 'Unmad', we read 'Alpin' and sometimes 'Ros+Alo'. But there was always a distinct attraction towards 'Unmad'. 'Unmad' somehow managed to become a successful brand in its own right," said Sifat.

Kazi Sara Sadia Noor, who works in a media outlet, became acquainted with 'Unmad' long ago. "In 1994, I was studying in class six. We lived in a rural town. There was a shop where you could find 'Unmad'. Sometimes, my mother or other times my brother would buy 'Unmad' from that shop. My whole family loved reading 'Unmad'," she said. '

In an interview, Ahsan Habib said that the highest circulation of the magazine reached 30,000. 'Unmad' printed every kind of humour: comedy, jokes, comic strips. 'Unmad' did not have a uniform mascot like 'Mad' or 'Diwana'.

Ahsan Habib believes that Bangladeshi people are generally of comical nature. Yet, many could not bear Unmad's sharp criticisms. In the 1980s, a judge filed a multi-crore defamation case against Unmad. They somehow made it out of the case after apologising. 

Also, Unmad used to satirise newly released movies. Once, a director and producer who could not bear Unmad satirising their movie, attacked its office!

In an interview with the BBC in 2018, Ahsan Habib said that doing political satire or cartoons has somewhat become difficult these days. Cartoonists draw political cartoons but editors no longer print them.

After our independence, West Bengal produced some veteran cartoonists. Notable among them are Shailanarayan Chakraborty, Debiprasad Roy Chowdhury, Kutti, Chondi Lahiri, Rebatibhushan Ghosh, Amal Chakraborty and others. 

Their cartoons were printed in Bangalee dailies and periodicals such as the 'Lalita', 'Prabartak', 'Suchitra Shishir' and 'Bharatbarsho'. Political figures like Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah were present in these cartoons as well as cultural figures like Rabindranath.

'Diwana's art editor Ramesh Gupta said, "The attitude of Hindustani people was changing towards satire; perhaps other problems took its place." Professor Emeritus Lee Seizel of the University of Hawaii at Manoa cited the comments of Diwana's editor in his book 'Laughing Matters: Comic Traditions of India'. 

The editor is believed to have been Som Benegal. The editor said, "The government now controls the media, and they have no sense of humour... You can print a joke or two without the eyes of the censor. But it is not possible to run an entire magazine anymore."

One of Mad's primary objectives was to scrutinise and criticise the system. 'Unmad' also published cartoons on political and social situations. Sara says, "There was political satire in 'Unmad', but it was presented artistically. Cartoons and writings were printed on the political situation and social crisis." 

However, Sifat was not yet old enough to fully understand politics. He said, "I was too young to have political awareness when I read Unmad. I never saw it from that point of view. It was solely a fun magazine for me."

From 2006, Sara put down 'Unmad' for a while. Then from 2013 to 2016, she picked up the habit again. Why the break in the middle? 

"Socio-economic and political situations of Bangladesh gave birth to 'Unmad' but at one point they lost that touch. From 2003 to 2008, Unmad failed to stir up much 'insanity'," she said.

'Unmad' has also lost prominence because of the internet. Along with other contemporary publishing and business models, 'Mad' had to fight for survival against the internet. Diwana's popularity declined after cinema and television became more accessible to the masses in India. 

In Bangladesh, satire, jokes, memes and dark humour are available on social media now, especially on Facebook. 'Unmad' is not what it used to be. Also, a busy life no longer allows Sifat to read 'Unmad'. She also feels that it may have taken a backseat due to the prevalence of numerous humour-content on social media and also indicated that the custom of keeping newspapers at home has stopped these days.

'Unmad' used to feature a game of pictures on its last page, containing instructions as well. If the page was folded according to that instruction, a new image would appear. Sifat loved this puzzle as a child. But Sarah does not clearly remember the picture puzzle game. She vaguely remembers it as a 3D puzzle. 

Did 'Unmad' then appear completely differently to 'Unmad' readers by age? Are today's meme-loving youth thinking of Unmad as 'old man's humour'? According to Sifat, Unmad's content was relatable to people of different ages.

"Cartoons are a great medium; in both artistic and satirical ways. Cartoons are often able to convey messages through simple drawings more effectively than a poem, a song, or even a story," Sara said. 

Ahsan Habib is one of the artists behind establishing the cartoon industry in Bangladesh. Like Sifat, 'Unmad' was the childhood and adolescent entertainment of many Bangladeshis. 'Diwana' or 'Unmad' may have followed 'Mad', but never imitated it. Sara believes that there should be no barriers to artistic imitation.

Sources: Mental Floss, New Yorker, Polygon, Rolling Stone, Scroll Dots, Kishor Alo, BBC Bangla, Khola Kagaz, Shirish Dalpala, Inmad Facebook Page

This article first appeared on The Business Standard website. This is a translated version of the original Bangla article.

Translation by: Aziz Hakim