Monday MADness- Honey Boo Boo’s Family Circus!

Back in MAD #520 (April 2013) I did the art for this three page parody mash up of the TV reality show “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” and the long-running conic strip “The Family Circus”. I had a particularly fun time doing this one because cartoonist Jeff Keane, who took over the strip from his dad Bil Keane several years before Bil’s passing in 2011, is a good friend of mine. In fact, when MAD assigned this to me, I called Jeff up and didn’t tell him this was coming as I wanted to surprise him, but during our conversation asked him “So, what kind of brush do you use when you do the strip?”. He was puzzled why I was asking but figured it out a few months later when the issue came out. I gave him all the original art. This piece was written by Frank Santopadre who, besides being a comedy writer for a ton of TV shows, is the co-host of Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast! which is a terrific show.

Anyway, here’s a look at the pencil sketches for this piece, and the finals of the last two pages: