Sunday Mailbag: Fav/Least Fav MAD work?

Q: What is your most and least favorite pieces you’ve done for MAD?

A: Whew, that’s a tough one.

My stock answer on the former question is “the last one I did”, which is actually not a bad answer. I always put 110% into anything I do, especially for MAD, so naturally I like my most recent work the most. However some projects, be they because of the subject matter or just a happy set of circumstances and dumb luck, end up being a favorite. I guess if I had to choose I think MAD’s 519’s “The Dork Knight Repises” is my favorite piece I’ve done so far.

It’s not my best art… I think ‘The Slobbit” from MAD #522 might be the best art I’ve done so far for MAD, but for my overall favorite piece that Batman movie parody might take the prize.

Least favorite? My goal is to always improve so my earlier art is always going to seem (at least I hope) sub par to me as I am further removed from it. That said some jobs just didn’t turn out like I wanted for different reasons. I think my art on “Stuporman Reruns” in MAD 468 is my least favorite for a few reasons.

First, more than a few of the caricatures are rough. Second, I didn’t much like the splash page with Spider-man as “narrator”, and taking up too much focus… Superman is barely in it. Finally, the color on this job printed really oddly, and the line work got lost or muted somehow. This one has been reprinted a few times lately with the new Superman movie out so maybe I’ve just seen it a lot recently and it’s sticking in my head, but it’s not my best work, that’s for sure.

Thanks to Grant Jonen for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!