I’m flying solo this year with The Lovely Anna back home watching the snow melt. Come see me in the Small Press area at table SP-35! I’ve got a handful of full sized MAD parody page originals along, which is a rare thing for these shows. READ MORE
I had an sudden opportunity to add a workshop for early May here in Minnesota, so this just announced: a workshop May 3rd-5th in nearby Eagan, MN! I usually like to give people 6 months notice before a workshop, but this weekend suddenly opened up for me and I won’t be able to plan a workshop here in Minnesota at any other time in 2019, so this was my chance… just a little over three months until this workshop!! These Minnesota workshops are unique in that the Friday part of the class takes place here in my home and studio. We have a little welcome… READ MORE
Well, a surprise to me anyway… and I drew the damn thing! The Chicago Tribune website ran a story this week from the Post-Tribune of North Indiana, about about MAD‘s doing a spoof of “A Christmas Story” in issue #5, ostensibly for the film’s 35th anniversary (although that was just a coincidence I think, MAD just wanted to do a classic Christmas film for the holiday issue). Jean Shepherd, on whose writings the film was based, was originally from nearby Hammond, Indiana. I learned something interesting from the article. The above panel was from a scene in the film inside the department store, where Ralphie’s… READ MORE
I did this mock Rolling Stones cover and interior spread for Minnesota Monthly magazine’s year end issue back in 2012. Every year they would do an article on notable Minnesotans of the past year. The circles on the main image were for photo inserts and copy. The blank rectangles in the spread were for copy they dropped in. The only people most might recognize would be Bob Dylan and former Minnesota Timberwolves NBA player Kevin Love. READ MORE
Q: Your new MAD parodies now have rounded corner dialogue boxes. Why? A: When the Burbank staff took over I was told they wanted to have rounded corners on all the word boxes in the parodies. So we went from this: From “Rough One”, MAD #545 To this: From “Star Bores: Half Assed Jedi”, MAD #1 Why? No reason other than just to give it a little bit different look, I guess. I was not given a real reason. It serves no functional purpose, so just aesthetics. It’s a huge pain in the ass for me, since I hand ink these balloons. Now instead of… READ MORE
I’m in Portland right now doing a workshop, and arrived early to do a podcast and a couple of interviews for Wacom who is hosting the class at their “Experience Center”. During the podcast we discussed some of the other aspects of freelancing besides the art part of it. One of those aspects is “professionalism”, the lack of which is something that can greatly hold back, or completely derail, one’s career. By “professionlism”, I mean things like meeting deadlines, following through on promised stages of completion of a project, working well with art directors, etc. Don’t get me wrong, the art is job number one.… READ MORE
I just returned from another fabulous National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award Weekend, this time held in Philadephia. It was a great time as usual, planned and hosted by NCS President and first-lady Bill and Kayre Morrison. Getting to hang out with so many of my peers whom I respect and admire is one of the highlights of my year. Receiving the statuette above was one of the highlights of my life. This is THE Reuben Award, designed by Rube Goldberg himself, which I was honored with at the 2012 Reubens in Las Vegas. This year’s winner was animation legend Glen Keane. His and the names… READ MORE
Here’s another official sneak peek at part of the new MAD #1, a mash-up of cropped panels from the parody of “Riverdale”, which features an homage to Will Elder‘s classic “Starchie” from MAD #12. Written by Ian Boothby with art by me. How is an Elder homage going to fit into the Riverdale spoof, you ask? You’ll just have to buy the issue On April 17th to find out… Fa Fa Fa! Oh, and MAD posted this sneak peek on their Instagram: READ MORE
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