Humbug (magazine) - Size Matters

Size Matters

Although Humbug offered the same type of superior satires Kurtzman had previously presented in Mad and Trump, the small size was a genuine problem. It sometimes was the smallest publication in magazine racks, with the result that it was often hidden behind larger magazines. Despite a change to a larger magazine format with the tenth issue, it ceased publication with issue #11. Many contributors to Humbug were also the project's financial supporters, but their investments were lost when the magazine folded because of poor distribution. Kurtzman closed up shop with the following editorial in the magazine's last issue:

Man—We're Beat! Satire has got us beat. 1953—We started Mad magazine for a comic-book publisher and we did some pretty good satire and it sold very well. 1956—We started Trump magazine... and we worked much harder and we did much better satire and we sold much worse. 1957—We started Humbug magazine and we worked hardest of all and turned out the very best satire of all, which of course now sells the very worst of all. And now... as they throw rocks at Vice President Nixon... as space gets cluttered with missiles... and as our names are carefully removed from our work in Mad pocketbooks—a feeling of beatness creeps through our satirical veins and capillaries and we think how George S. Kaufman once said, "Satire is something that closes Saturday night."