Quoth 1950's America, nevermore: ParoDYING Poe's "The Raven" in MAD Magazine

Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe's works have long been subjects of parody. In the visual art style of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," this vertical scroll webcomic compares Poe's "The Raven" with MAD Magazine's 1954 comic adaptation. While Poe's poem uses Gothic tropes and poetic techniques to construct an effect of Romantic beauty, MAD's version subverts theses conventions through visual imagery, dismantling that effect and turning it grotesque. From 1845 to 1954 – and even now, in 2025 – the grotesque is embedded in spaces of beauty, with parody inviting us to reconsider what we "see" as beautiful.