MADness #11- America’s Most Wanted!

My next assignment (number 11) for MAD was the art for a parody of the TV show “America’s Most Wanted”, a sort of reality show that featured re-enactments of crimes by known fugitives (played by actors on the show) and interviews with actual law enforcement involved in the investigations, all with narration by the show host John Walsh. There was a hotline number to call if you have seen or have any information helping to capture the fugitive being featured. The show claimed to have led to the capture of over 1000 fugitives in the 25 years it ran on Fox. This spoof was written by Dick DeBartolo. and appeared in MAD #414, Feb 2002.

This was the first TV/movie parody written by Dick DeBartolo that I illustrated, although I drew a two page gag feature of his for my first published MAD piece. Dick ended up being the second most frequent writer I was paired up with at the magazine. I drew 21 of his articles over the years. Most of those would be TV show or movie spoofs.

I learned a lot working for MAD and art director Sam Viviano. One of the things he told me early on was not to make my secondary characters look too cartoony or out of place next to the ones that were likenesses of real people. I had a tendency to do that, using a kind of generic cartoon character with big, goofy eyes and cartoonish features for background people or “extras” that were not caricatures of anybody. Sam’s point was that it took you out of the story somewhat, and the two different looks didn’t seem like they belonged in the same world.

One solution for that was to actually draw caricatures of someone for those “extras”, or at least use some pictures for the basics. I used a couple of catalogues of model/actor headshots I got from a friend to get ideas for extra characters… stuff like their basic features, hairstyle, etc. I didn’t try for an exact likeness with those pictures but I used their basic features to give those characters a more individual look, which made them look like they fit in with the actual caricature likenesses.

Another thing I’d do, if I needed a recurring character in a parody, is take some pictures of people I knew and drew them into the spoof. This parody was the first time I did that. The character of “David Shame” in the last three pages above, is a friend and fellow caricaturist James Hungaski. James worked with me doing caricatures at my Minnesota theme park operations, and he let me take some pics of him at various angles for reference. His reward was being shot and killed at near the end of page 5.

This piece in #414 would be the first time I was in more than two consecutive issues, this being my third issue in a row. I thought that was pretty cool. Little did I know I’d have a seven issue run here before missing another issue.

Once again this is one of those earlier jobs where I have no sketches or even the original digital files anymore. These are page scans.

Toon in next week for another thrilling tale from my chronological look back at my work for MAD! This time we’ll see the beginning of my short but intense stretch as MAD’s resident “Owen Wilson/Gene Hackman Guy”.