MAD Magazine
March 31st, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The legendary Al Jaffee The Lovely Anna and I were lucky to be able to attend a special event last night in celebration of the great Al Jaffee‘s 95th birthday at Sardi’s in New York City. Hosted by DC Entertainment, a crowd of Al’s family, friends and colleagues congratulated Al on seven decades (and going) of work as a cartoonist and on 95 years on the planet. The evening included some big surprises, including Al’s induction into the Guinness Book of World Records and a NYC Mayoral Proclamation. Al and MAD writer Dick DeBartolo More of MAD’s Usual Idiots (Clockwise lower left): MAD photographer Irving… READ MORE
March 29th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Thought this was interesting. This is an ad on Playbill.com looking for comedy performers for a new live show. For those that don’t know, there was a MAD live show Off-Broadway back in 1966, written by MAD writers Larry Siegel and Stan Hart, and the original cast included Linda Lavin and Jo Anne Worley. I have no clue who is behind this, what connection MAD really has to it (which could range from 100% to DC Entertainment only licensing out the MAD name ala the FOX TV show). I’ll have to ask the MAD staff about it. READ MORE
March 14th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Okay so this wasn’t a MAD job but in honor of Al Jaffee’s 95th birthday yesterday I thought I’d share this ad job from 2007 that was based on Al’s icon “MAD Fold-In”. This job was for Hardee’s restaurants, and was art for an ad promotion for their newest sandwich offering… the “Philly Cheesesteak Thickburger”. It is a giant hamburger topped with cheesesteak fixings on one bun… not for a light lunch. The ad was supposed to be like a MAD “Fold-In” concept… something I’ve seen other companies like Dodge do in the past so I knew it was not unprecedented. The thing that concerned… READ MORE
March 13th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I’m forgoing the Sunday Mailbag today to wish a happy 95th birthday to the great Al Jaffee. The words “legendary” and “genius” get thrown around an awful lot these days, but if there is anyone in the world of cartooning to whom these words truly apply it would be Al. MAD Magazine has had many artists work for them whose level of talent and skill have been off the charts. Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Don Martin… the list keep on going. Some were incredible visual artists like Drucker, Wood, and Davis, some were unique combinations of written and visual… READ MORE
March 7th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Again in honor of the final season of “American Idol”: As mentioned last week, I have done two pieces about “American Idol” in MAD… here’s the earlier one I did from MAD #440, April 2004, written by Greg Leitman. I would have posted some of the preliminary drawings but I guess all sketches/roughs for this are lost to posterity. Lots of private cameos in this one. Those are my kids’s names on the blackboard along with “Max Korn” and good friend Brady (Parham). Brady’s parents, caricaturist/illustrator Keelan and wife Barbie are in the center with a Tiki idol between them (inside joke). The guy wringing… READ MORE
February 29th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s the final season of “American Idol”, so here’s a look back at one of the two pieces I did about the show over the years in MAD. These are the pencil roughs and final artwork for “You Can Write the Next American Idol Single!”, written by Desmond Devlin and appearing in MAD #466, June 2006. It’s actually kind of amazing how many of the people in this piece are still somewhat relevant. READ MORE
February 26th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Those who frequent comic book shops and comic cons will be very familiar with “Sketch Covers”. For the rest of you, a sketch cover is a comic book (or magazine, or…) that has a blank cover with just the book’s title graphics in place. These are either the actual cover or, more often, a second cover on top of the printed cover and stapled in as a single comic. Sketch covers use a cardstock or heavyweight paper that is suitable for drawing on in pencil and marker, hence the name. Every time I do comic cons I get more than a few people who ask… READ MORE
February 22nd, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised, here’s a sneak peek at some of the art for MAD #538’s parody of the last two “Hunger Games” films, written by Desmond Devlin: What do you mean you want to “read the word balloons????” What do you think this is, a furshlugginer library? Go out and buy a copy, clod! READ MORE
