Monday MADness
May 28th, 2018 | Posted in Monday MADness
I was at the National Cartoonists Society’s annual Reuben Weekend in Philadelphia and sat in on a MAD magazine panel. During the panel, I was asked about how I got started with the magazine. I thought about it afterward and it was basically exactly 18 years ago, shortly after the 2000 Reuben Weekend, that I got my first assignment from MAD. It was a three pager entitled “MAD‘s Cable TV Viewing Odds” written by John Biederman. This job was what is called an “evergreen” feature… meaning it is not timely and can be run virtually at any time when they need a couple of pages… READ MORE
May 21st, 2018 | Posted in Monday MADness
Every once and awhile MAD would chose to do a parody of some show that was a real head-scratcher… not the show but the fact that MAD decided it was parody worthy. This is an example from MAD #478, the June 2007 issue. “Dog the Bounty Hunter” was a reality show on A&E that, while it ran for eight seasons, was a far cry from a household name. I’m still not sure why it was picked for a MAD parody subject, but I thought the same thing of the two dozen HGTV shows we spoofed. Anyway, I drew the four page parody written by Dennis… READ MORE
May 14th, 2018 | Posted in Monday MADness
This week’s Monday MADness is a look at the original pencil roughs for the Desmond Devlin penned parody of the film ‘Watchmen” that appeared in MAD #499, April 2009. You can see some art notes written in here and there… some were my telling the MAD guys what I intended to do and some was direction from them. READ MORE
May 7th, 2018 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Okay, the MAD offices in New York have only been closed for about four months so it might be a little too soon to use the word “reunion”, but we had a little get together of “The Usual Gang of Idiots” this past Saturday in Manhattan. I was in town teaching a workshop. Here are some pics! From left to right are former editor Charlie Kadau, his lovely lady Ellen Berg Cohen, writers Desmond Devlin and Dick Debartolo*, and former art director and longtime MAD artist Sam Viviano. *Dick is not only MAD‘s Maddest writer, he’s also MAD‘s Fastest Idiot. He’s so fast normal photography… READ MORE
April 30th, 2018 | Posted in Monday MADness
This week’s Monday MADness is a look at the final splash page and all the pencil roughs for the Desmond Devlin penned mash-up parody of the first three Daniel Craig 007 movies entitled “Casebook: SPYFAIL- The Battle of the Bonds” from MAD #521, June 2013. These are true “roughs” as I just drew blank heads (and made notes as to who is supposed to be who.. although some might say I should do that even with my finished caricatures) and everything is very sketchy, meaning I must have worked out the caricatures and drew things out fully on the art boards. These pencils were for… READ MORE
April 23rd, 2018 | Posted in Monday MADness
Last week MAD launched it’s new website and announced a lot of plans for a renewed and higher profile online and social media presence. Plans include multiple daily original cartoons and content on the MAD website, and a new blog coming this summer. On the social media side you’ll already see MAD has a very active Twitter and Instagram feed with multiple daily gags, comics and images. They also plan on posting a lot of original content on Facebook, but that is all going to be published in Russian to cut to the chase. There is also going to be an upcoming MAD podcast hosted… READ MORE
April 16th, 2018 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic books shops now, in subscriber mailboxes and via digital format TBD, on news stands (all 16 of them left) everywhere tomorrow! Cover– (Jason Edmiston) ToC (Art by Harvey Kurtzman) Star Bores: Half-Assed Jedi (Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond) A MAD Look at Harassment (Sergio Aragonés, Colors: Carrie Strachan) Make America Greet Again (Teresa Burns Parkhurst) Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper) The Wisenheim Museum (Ron English) Potrzebie Comics Cover (Kerry Callen) It’s Bring Your Sidekick to Work Day! (Kerry Callen) The 27 Club (Luke McGarry) Boonies, Burbs and Burgs (Bob Fingerman) MAD’s Movie Mogul Guide (Mary Trainor) Pop Culture that Didn’t Make it into Ready… READ MORE
April 9th, 2018 | Posted in MAD Magazine
If you are not following MAD Magazine on Instagram you are missing out on frequent sneak peeks at some of the artwork you’ll see in the new MAD #1, which comes out a week from tomorrow!! The above is a close up of part of a panel from my art on MAD‘s parody of “Riverdale” written by Ian Boothby. READ MORE
