Monday MADness: First MAD Job?

What constitutes my very first MAD job depends on your definition of “first”. Would that be the first thing I was ever assigned to do and then paid for doing it by the magazine? The first thing I ever did that appeared under the MAD brand in any form (i.e. on their website?) or the first thing I did that actually saw print in an issue?

Technically the very first job I ever got from MAD was assigned to me 19 years ago last month (June 2000). It was a feature called “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 filled at the last second, say if another feature was late. I was told it was originally slated for MAD #398, but I got a call from MAD art director Sam Viviano shortly after turning in the job that it had been “bumped” and would appear in a future issue sometime. Actually I still wonder about that. I was once told that MAD would sometimes produce these kinds of evergreen pieces, written and drawn by newbies, as a sort of “trial” run for new creators. So I am not really sure if this was ever seriously planned for immediate print, or if it was always destined for the “evergreen” drawer. Regardless, MAD pays on delivery so although it was bumped I was paid for the job:

That piece saw print about 8 months later in MAD #406, AFTER I had done art in five earlier issues. Technically it’s the first thing I ever did for them, but the 6th thing I did that saw print.

About six weeks after turning in that job I got a call from Sam about doing a fast turnaround piece for the MAD website. Yes, waaaaay back in 2000 MAD had a website that published ORIGINAL CONTENT, and kept that up for about a year or so. The piece was a spot illustration for a feature called “Presidential Survivor”. This is the biggest version of the image that survives:

The premise was that when you moved your mouse over one of the “contestants”, a gag bio would pop up. This art appeared on the MAD website immediately (August of 2000), making it technically the first thing I ever did that appeared in any media under the MAD name.

However, by MY criteria my first MAD job would be the first thing I ever did that was published in the pages of the magazine. That would be the two pager at the top of this post, “Gadgets to Really Make Home Theater Like Going to the Movies”, written by the great Dick DeBartolo. I was assigned this job in August of 2000, and it appeared in MAD #399, (Nov 2000) which hit the stands in early October of that year. Here’s the pencil sketch and final art for that job:

We threw a party at our house that October to celebrate my appearing in the pages of MAD Magazine. 19 years and 135 issues later, the party continues.