MAD Magazine
July 14th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic book shops now and on news stands tomorrow: MAD # 492 (Aug 2008) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Desmond Devlin, Garth Gerhart, Dave Hanson, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Jacob Lambert, Barry Liebmann, Hermann Mejia, Scott Nickel, Kevin Pope, Jack Syracuse, Rick Tulka) MAD’s International Preview Of The Beijing Olympics (Desmond Devlin, Tom Bunk) The Knockout (Mark Fredrickson) Ironic, Man (Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond) 10 Easy Ways To Beat High Gas Prices And Increase Your Mileage (Dick Debartolo, Tim Hamilton) Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper) Movie Posters For The Rest Of The Movie Experience (Russ Cooper, Scott Bricher) MAD’s Cocky But Handy Hancock… READ MORE
July 11th, 2008 | Posted in General
A Mort Drucker “Bob Hope” cover As I wrote about on Monday, I had occasion to have a pleasant lunch with writer Mark Evanier on Sunday, and among other things we discussed some MAD Magazine history. Mark is quite an expert on the history of comics and MAD, and as always told me a number of things I didn’t know. We got on the subject of classic MAD artists, including the great Mort Drucker. Mark asked me if I knew who Owen Fitzgerald was. I was chagrined to say I did not. Fitzgerald was apparently one of those comic book and animation artists who “fell… READ MORE
June 19th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The St. Louis Artist’s Guild has apparently hit rock bottom, as they are stooping to an exhibit of artwork from MAD Magazine and as a result will no doubt lose all credibility as a patron of the arts. Worse yet, they aren’t even making any money off of it as it is free to the public!! What are they thinking? The show opening this Sunday with a reception from 1:00- 3:00 pm at the Guild’s gallery, and runs through Sept. 6th. I do not believe that there is any of my artwork in it, unless it’s from some private collection. All the more reason to… READ MORE
June 13th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I occasionally peruse MAD Magazine message board forums like Mad Mumblings and the Official MAD Message Boards, and one common subject keeps getting brought up… … where are all the movie parodies? In years past, you could almost always count on at least one parody of a movie and/or a TV show in each issue of MAD… often one of each. TV show parodies are still fairly plentiful in the magazine, but in the last few years there has been a decline in the number of movie parodies. In 2007 there was a grand total of three movie parodies in MAD, “Spider-Man 3”, “Harry Potter… READ MORE
June 10th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I believe I’ve mentioned, once or twice here on The MAD Blog, something called the “evergreen drawer” in the MAD offices. The evergreen drawer refers to articles that the staff at MAD keep laid aside for use in an undetermined future issue. For obvious reasons the articles that are put in the evergreen drawer need to be not of a timely nature i.e. their subject matter must be such that they can be run anytime and still remain basically relevant. Hence, “evergreen”. There are several reasons an article might end up in the evergreen drawer. The most common is that another article is fast tracked… READ MORE
June 9th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic shops this week and on news stands June 17th: MAD # 491 (July 2008) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Scott Bricher, Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Matthew A. Cohen, Paul Coker, Dick DeBartolo, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Dan Long, Scott Nickel, Kevin Pope, Leonardo Rodriguez, Kiernan P. Schmitt, Bob Staake, Rick Tulka, P.C. Vey) G*d Damn America (Frank Jacobs, Jack Syracuse) A MAD Look at Going Green (Sergio Aragon?¬©s) Dr. Suess For The Digital Age (Darren Johnson, Gary Hallgren) The Pros And Cons Of Working At Home (Teresa Burns Parkhurst) Now That Anyone Can Become A Celebrity! (Jacob Lambert, Paul Coker) The Darker… READ MORE
May 19th, 2008 | Posted in General
Mark Evanier posted a link to this short two part documentary on Will Elder, made by his son-in-law Gary VandenBergh some 8 years ago. It contains earlier footage of interviews with both Bill Gaines and Harvey Kurtzman, among others. It’s well worth the twenty minutes, and I thought I’d share it here as well with a tip of the hat to Mark: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2D0Y3riSd4[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXQNHI1Xn-0[/youtube] READ MORE
May 16th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Artwork ??á©E.C. Publications and MAD Magazine Will Elder, one of the defining artists of the early MAD comic and long time collaborator of Harvey Kurtzman, passed away Thursday morning of unspecified causes at the age of 86. Elder had been ill for some time battling Parkinson’s disease and had difficulty signing his name let alone drawing, according to a communication I had recently with a friend of Will’s. It goes without saying that a true pioneer of cartooning left us yesterday. All cartoonists get asked about who their major influences are, and among the usual suspects it sometimes surprises people when I name Will Elder… READ MORE
