Name: CAM Presents: The Unofficial Official MAD Panel Discussion
Start: 2025-11-20T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-11-20T19:30:00-05:00
Location: Cincinnati Art Museum

CAM Presents: The Unofficial Official MAD Panel Discussion
Thursday, November 20, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Ticketed. → http://bit.ly/47lG95Z
From its start in 1952 as a popular humor comic book, MAD evolved into a beloved magazine that spoke truth to power and attracted generations of devoted readers. Always historically and socially timely—and always very funny—MAD’s influence is vast and ongoing. Join us for a panel discussion on the art, satire, and cultural impact of What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine, moderated by CAM Director of Learning and Interpretation Emily Agricola Holtrop and featuring author and scholar Judith Yaross Lee, illustrator and art director Sam Viviano, and artist C.F. Payne.
This program will be interpreted in American Sign Language by Ghostlight Stage Company.
About the Panelists:
Judith Yaross Lee
Judith Yaross Lee is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Communication Studies at Ohio University (Athens, OH), where she also held the Charles E. Zumkher Chair in Rhetoric and Public Culture until her 2019 retirement. A leading authority on American humor, especially in print, Lee has published six books and some 60 articles on the history and cultural significance of American popular rhetorics, most recently Seeing MAD: Essays on Mad Magazine’s Humor and Legacy (University of Missouri Press, 2020) and “American Comedies, Imperial Heritage” (The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy, 2025).
C.F. Payne
Now in Lebanon, OH, C.F. Payne’s illustrations have appeared in magazines, advertisements, and children’s book for more that 35 years. A graduate of Miami University (Oxford, OH), with a BFA, and the Illustrators Workshop (South Kortright, NY), Payne began his freelance career upon his move to Dallas, TX, in 1980. He has taught illustration for more than 25 years, with 19 at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Currently Payne serves as the Director of the MFA in Illustration program at the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. His art has been exhibited in numerous museums and university galleries including the Cincinnati Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Norman Rockwell Museum, Huntington Art Museum, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and more. Payne’s art has appeared on the covers of Time Magazine, MAD Magazine, Der Spiegel, The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Reader’s Digest. He has illustrated 20 children’s books, some by Sue Macy, Marissa Moss, Phil Bildner and noted actor/authors John Lithgow, Steve Martin, astronaut Mark Kelly, and Mark Twain’s classic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In 2018, Payne was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.
Sam Viviano
Sam Viviano is an award-winning illustrator and art director. Born in Detroit and a graduate of the University of Michigan, Viviano moved to New York City in the mid-seventies to pursue a career in the arts. For more than 20 years, he was a successful illustrator specializing in caricature and cartooning, his work appearing in magazines, books, and advertising. Most notably, Viviano was a regular contributor to MAD Magazine. In 1999, he joined the MAD staff as Art Director, a position he held for the next 19 years. Viviano won the prestigious National Cartoonists Society award for Best Magazine Illustration in 2009. In 2014 he was inducted into the Media Industry News Design Hall of Fame. He has lectured extensively throughout the world on his career and the history of MAD. Viviano is proud to have been a member of seven USO tours to draw caricatures for U.S. troops stationed in Europe, the Middle East. and stateside. Most recently, he was Lead Advisor to the enthusiastically received MAD exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Viviano and his wife Diane, a pediatrician, live in New York City, along with a boisterous cairn terrier named Wallaby.
image credit: Judith Yaross Lee headshot by Ben Siegel of Ohio University Media Services.
If you need accessibility accommodations, please contact us in advance at [email protected]
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The Cincinnati Art Museum is open Tuesday–Sunday. Free general admission & free parking. Please visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org for more information