MAD Magazine
July 19th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I know you have all been waiting with breathless abandon for us to resume our look back through my work for MAD Magazine! This week’s episode features the very FIRST parody where I used a Wacom Cintiq for the digital coloring. It was a spoof of the movie “Van Helsing” written by Dick DeBartolo and first appearing in MAD #445, Sept 2004. I have the pencil roughs for this one! I remember this assignment, particularly the splash page, because it was set up differently than a typical splash. There was a column of panels on the right that delved into the actual parody, leaving only… READ MORE
July 5th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s yet another electrifying episode of the chronologial crawl through my work at MAD magazine. This week is a look at the parody of the TV show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” (with the original cast) from MAD #443, July 2004. This feature was my the first collaboration between me and former MAD editor Dave Croatto. I would go on to illustrate on other MAD parody written by Dave just a few issues later, but years later he and I would team up to do two MAD children’s book parody books, Goodnight Batcave and Superman and the Miserable, Rotten, No Fun, Really Bad Day. Once again when doing one… READ MORE
June 28th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We are back on track with another exciting episode of our chronological crawl through my work for MAD Magazine! This week features MAD’s spoof of the TV show “The O.C.” written by Dennis Snee and appearing in MAD #442, June 2004. I have some of the original pencil roughs for this one as well as the finals. This show was set in Orange County, California and was about teenagers from that area. I knew a couple of teenagers from OC, Joe and Luke McGarry, who were the teenage sons of cartoonist Steve McGarry, then president of the National Cartoonists Society. So, I drew Joe and… READ MORE
June 7th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Hold onto your butts! It’s another edge-of-your-seat episode of our chronological wandering through my work for MAD Magazine! This week’s stop is a two pager poking fun at “American Idol”, written by Greg Leitman and appearing in MAD #440, April 2004. This piece features a couple of inside jokes and cameos. First, the names on the blackboard Pete Rose is putting the betting odds on are the names of my four kids as well as Max Korn and Brady, the daughter of a couple of good friends of ours, Keelan and Barbie Parham: Speaking of Keelan and Barbie, they make a cameo here as well:… READ MORE
June 4th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Wednesday, June 2nd marked the third anniversary of the passing of Nick Meglin, longtime contributor/editor/backbone of MAD magazine. Nick died suddenly of a heart attack at 82 years old. I vividly remember the phone call I got telling me Nick was gone. I was in Toronto teaching a caricature workshop, and I was in total shocked disbelief. Only a few weeks earlier I had seen Nick and got to spend some time with him at the National Cartoonists Society Reuben awards in Philadelphia. It’s impossible to overstate how important Nick was to MAD. Publisher Bill Gaines called him the “heart” of the magazine, but he… READ MORE
June 1st, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s yet another stop on our long and winding road of jobs I did for MAD Magazine. Today is a look at MAD’s spoof of the movie “School of Rock”, written by Dick DeBartolo and appearing in MAD #438, Feb 2004. I am sometimes asked if doing parodies of comedies is a bit trickier than doing them of dramas or “serious” movies. It is but really only from the writing sense. Making fun of a plot that is in and of itself a satire or meant to be silly is a tougher nut to crack for the writer. Dick did a great job on this… READ MORE
May 18th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Former president Barack Obama and his family’s Portuguese water dog Bo passed away last week. They got the dog as a puppy shortly after they moved into the White House. I am reluctantly reminded of the first book I ever illustrated for the MAD gang, Bo Confidential: The Secret Files of America’s First Dog. Bo moved into the White House on April 14th of 2009, and he got a LOT of media attention. Naturally the folks at MAD thought that was ridiculous, so they quickly wrote a short book and it was rushed to press… and I mean RUSHED. I got the assignment in late April of… READ MORE
May 17th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I’m sure you are on the edge of your seat for yet another fascinating episode from our weekly chronological crawl through my work for MAD Magazine. This week’s episode features a spoof of the TLC home improvement show “Trading Spaces”, written by MAD‘s Maddest writer Dick Debartolo, and appearing in MAD #435, November 2003. This was the first of what would be four home improvement/HGTV “reality” show parodies I would draw for MAD, and I believe they did a couple of others drawn by other artists. This always made me scratch my head a bit. There were many really popular TV series that MAD never… READ MORE
