MAD Magazine
June 16th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
A lot of people ask me what MAD is planning on doing now that they are only publishing 4 times a year. Hopefully, here’s one answer. New, original content MAD books. Back in the 60’s and 70’s MAD published a lot of paperback books, many of which were the work of individual artist and writers like Don Martin, Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Al Jaffee, etc. These were also mostly original content, not reprints from the magazine. For most of the last two decades, MAD‘s book offerings have been reprinted classic MAD material packaged into themed collections like “MAD About the 60’s” or “MAD about Superheroes”. This book,… READ MORE
May 18th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The art for the cover of the next issue of Stay Tooned! Magazine. Click image for a closer look… I have been singing the praises of John Read‘s fantastic publication Stay Tooned! for some time now, and was delighted when John asked me to illustrate the cover of the upcoming issue number four AKA the “MAD” issue. The issue won’t be in print until at least next month, but John gave me permission the other day to preview the art I did for the cover. The issue contains profiles of some of the Usual Gang of Idiots: Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Paul Coker Jr., Jack Davis, Don… READ MORE
May 16th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Back in March I posted a bit of news about longtime MAD Magazine editor Al Feldstein having health difficulties and needing heart surgery. My friend Mark Evanier posted an update on his excellent News from ME blog about Al’s progress. Mark writes: Also getting better is the legendary Al Feldstein, who was the writer-editor of Tales from the Crypt and other classic EC Comics, and the editor of MAD magazine for 29 years. Al underwent double-bypass aortic valve replacement (i.e., heart surgery) on April 17 at the world famous Mayo Clinic. He’s home now and recovering, and we’re happy about that, too. Turns out Al… READ MORE
May 14th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Neil Cuadra is getting more press for his latest CD effort than Axl Rose got for “Chinese Democracy”… but then again that’s not saying much. Cuadra is a huge MAD fan from Los Angelses, CA who fulfilled “a dream” by getting a letter published in MAD‘s “Letters and Tomatoes Dept.” by sending in his portrait of Alfred E. Neuman created by nothing but AOL junk mail CDs. Inspired by a MAD parody chastising AOL for all the junk diskettes they used to send out (since changed to CDs), Cuadra collected the shiny junk disks from AOL and other companies for over ten years until he… READ MORE
April 23rd, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Promo art by Peter “PG” Gustafsson “The MAD Generation” is an exhibition of MAD inspired artwork showing at The Gallery at East Atlanta Tattoo in Atlanta, GA. It only runs for two weeks and the final three days are today, tomorrow and Saturday. The artwork in the show are tributes to MAD and the visual images that made it successful as seen through the eyes of about 50 different artists. This looks like a fun show and I wish it was nearby. I don’t get to Atlanta anymore after having closed up my Underground Atlanta caricature location over a year ago… not that I would… READ MORE
April 21st, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It took a little over 57 years, but this week MAD Magazine‘s 500th issue hits the stands… thereby officially thumbing their noses at TIME Magazine‘s famous critical opinion of the publication as a “short lived satirical pulp”. MAD might not be doing well in this age of dying print publications, but lasting 57 years and 500 issues is no mean feat. Upon my gently broaching the subject of whether or not I’d have a piece in #500, art director Sam Viviano told me he was being asked the sames thing by a staggering number of current and former MAD contributors. The editors and staff wanted… READ MORE
April 20th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
This is it!! Big number 500 is in comic book stores this week and on news stands April 28th: MAD # 500 (June 2009) Cover (Mark Frederickson) The Fundalini Pages (Jeff Kruse & Liz Lomax, Garth Gerhart, Duck Edwing, Tom Cheney, Jeff Kruse & Scott Bricher, Sam Sisco, Michael Grinspan & Bob Clarke, Peter Paul Porges, Al Jaffee, Stan Sinberg & Bob Staake, The Notorious A.I.G. (Scott Bricher) The Fundalini Pages, con’t (Scott Maiko & Leonardo Rodriguez, Desmond Devlin & Kevin Pope, Peter Bagge, Anthony Barbieri & Tom Fowler & Carl Peterson & Rob Liegh, Jeff Kruse & Jos?¬© Garibaldi, Jacob Lambert, Jeff Kruse &… READ MORE
March 29th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Mort Drucker and Me, NYC 2000 No “Sunday Mailbag” this week, as these birthday wishes are much more important. Today is supposedly MAD Magazine legend Mort Drucker‘s 80th birthday. I say “supposedly” because although Mort’s Wikipedia entry and other sources list March 29th, 1929 as his birth date, the book “Familiar Faces: The Art of Mort Drucker” claims it is March 22nd, 1929. I don’t know which to believe, but considering the relative ease at which an error in the date could be corrected in an on-line biography and that one in a book printed in 1988 is incorrectable, I have to conclude the internet… READ MORE
