"Mostly it was Mad magazine. And I did read a lot of - I had a subscription when I was little, but I also had access to some old collections, the little paperbacks of the really good stuff"

Alison Bechdel is describing her childhood reading habits in this quote. She was a fan of Mad magazine, and had a membership when she was young. She likewise had access to some old collections of Mad magazine, which she discovered to be especially pleasurable. This recommends that she was a fan of the traditional Mad magazine stories, which were typically satirical and funny. Bechdel's quote also indicates that she was a ravenous reader, as she had access to a range of Mad magazine collections. This might be seen as a testimony to her love of reading, and her appreciation for the classic stories that Mad publication had to use.