News
March 16th, 2021 | Posted in News
I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but some things happened in 2020 that forced me to cancel or postpone a bunch of my in-person caricature workshops. It’s a long story but last May this motley crew seen above was SUPPOSED to spend the weekend drawing together in Long Island City, NY. We had to postpone the workshop and then tried to reschedule it for August, optimistically thinking the pandemic would be under control by then. Well… it wasn’t. I was able to squeeze in a couple of workshops in Detroit and Chicago during the short-lived downtick in the pandemic this past late… READ MORE
March 9th, 2021 | Posted in News
Work on Desmond Devlin and my book of MAD style movie parodies, CLAPTRAP, proceeds apace! Des is working on scripts while I have the art for several parodies in various stages of completion, from production layouts to rough sketches to pencils and inks, and finally full color finals. Along with full splash pages we will occasionally post finished panels or WIP images as sneak peeks. Here’s one now! This is the first story panel of our parody of “The Shawshank Redemption”, the splash page of which was shared earlier… Our spoof is 8 pages of sidesplitting hilarity, but you’ll have to wait until the book comes out to… READ MORE
March 2nd, 2021 | Posted in News
Yesterday Comic-Con International made the not very surprising announcement that the 2021 San Diego Comic-Con was not going to take place in July as an in-person event, but will instead be held “virtually” as it was in 2020. So, that’s two years of SDCC wiped out by the pandemic. Here’s their official press release. Again, not surprising. These types of mega events that feature cavernous indoor convention centers packed shoulder to shoulder with shuffling, droplet spewing humanity are the very last things that will return. Forget about catching a virus, after a walk across the SDCC convention floor I come out the other side smeared… READ MORE
February 26th, 2021 | Posted in News
I am a longtime member of the National Cartoonists Society, a 75 year old organization of professional cartoonists that has boasted members like Rube Goldberg, Milton Caniff, Jeff MacNelly, Charles Schulz, Jack Davis, Sergio Aragonés, Walt Kelly, Mort Drucker, Alex Raymond… well, way too many of the greatest of the greatest to list here. It’s a wonderful organization full of terrific and super talented people. The NCS will be hosting a virtual “NCS Open House/Meet & Greet” tonight at 7:00pm EST via Zoom. Here’s their brief description about it: Join fellow cartoonists to learn about the NCS, hear from some of our current members, and… READ MORE
February 25th, 2021 | Posted in News
Yet another major company that should know better is conducting another of those online “art contests”, where they invite artists to create visual pieces of art for “a chance to win $$$” and of course to have your work recognized by “really important people”. This time it’s Universal Pictures, and they want artists to create a new horror character to go along with their famous line-up of horror/monsters for a chance to win $10,000 and to have your work “recognized by a panel of visionary Hollywood filmmakers and creatives”. And, of course, like all of these “contests” this is part of the rules: BY SUBMITTING… READ MORE
February 23rd, 2021 | Posted in General
Just a reminder that you have about two weeks or so to get your birthday wishes for Al Jaffee‘s 100th birthday to MAD Art Director Emeritus Sam Viviano. Sam hasn’t set a deadline but he needs time to put all of this together, so I’d suggest you make sure your cards, letters, fruitcakes, or fresh fish arrive by Wed, March 10th. That’s only TWO WEEKS from tomorrow! What are you waiting for, clod… a furshlugginer invitation? READ MORE
February 12th, 2021 | Posted in News
Yesterday my pal and writer extraordinaire Mark Evanier shared the not exactly unexpected news that the Wondercon 2021 comic convention will not take place as a live three day event in Anaheim CA as previously scheduled March 26-28th, but will be a two day virtual event instead on Friday and Saturday, March 26 and 27, 2021. Again, not exactly a shocker, but I believe this will be the first major comic book convention that has seen its in-person event cancelled TWICE since the pandemic began. I fear it won’t be the last. I would have attended Wondercon as I usually do, so I am planning… READ MORE
February 9th, 2021 | Posted in News
Former MAD art director and longtime MAD artist Sam Viviano announced his “The Jaffee Project” last week, which is a little something he’s graciously put together to celebrate the great Al Jaffee‘s upcoming 100th birthday on March 13th. Given the pandemic, we can’t very well do this the way we’d like, with a Times Square parade, so Sam thought some ingenuity was required. Sam’s idea was to give everyone a place to send their birthday wishes to Al, and then Sam will put them together and schlep them over to Al’s place. I have a feeling Sam may need to rent a Uhaul from the… READ MORE
