Since it’s beginning in 1952, Mad magazine has marketed its unique brand of humor to an attentive audience.

Mad’s iconic status comes from Alfred E. Neuman, Spy vs. Spy, its knack for relentless social commentary and its claim to be America’s longest running humor magazine, according to Mad’s Web site.

The Ohio State Cartoon Research Library is hosting through Sept. 2, “Humor in a Jugular Vein,” an exhibition of original artwork and memorabilia from the Mad magazine collection of Mark J. Cohen and Marie McDaniel.

The exhibition, originally assembled in California, includes hundreds of items Cohen and McDaniel collected from large storyboards to trading cards and coffee mugs.

The collection toured internationally, and until Cohen fell ill, he gave speeches with the exhibit, said Lucy Coswell, the exhibit’s curator.

McDaniel gave the collection to Ohio State when Cohen died in December 1989, and Ohio State has kept hundreds of those pieces in storage at the Cartoon Research Library since that time, Coswell said.

Steve Boreman, recent chair of the National Cartoonists Society Great Lakes Chapter, said he attended the opening of the exhibition, which featured a speech given by Mad’s co-creator, Al Feldstein. Boreman said the majority of Feldstein’s speech was about the magazine’s beginnings and it’s place in the contemporary society of the time.

“Mad is important in the sense that it represented anti-establishment views that were uncommon at the time (of it’s original publication),” Boreman said. “(Feldstein) talked about how there was no precedent for the magazine that they were setting up. He also talked about the fact that they wouldn’t take advertising, he talked about the historical perspective, and that’s what made it so interesting.”

“The works are much larger than you’d expect them to be,” Boreman said. “It spans a good number of years. It has some things that give you a sense of the cultural influence that Mad has and how it’s managed to remain relevant all of this time.”

The collection includes original artwork by legendary cartoon artists like Mort Drucker and Mike Davis.

“These guys are some of the best draftsmen that you’ll ever come across,” Boreman said.