Sunday Mailbag

Q: When are you going to post the MAD artwork you just finished in the MAD Art section?

A: I always wait until the date that the issue of MAD the art appears in has hit the newsstand to post full images on my website. The MAD editors have never specifically said I couldn’t post the artwork early, but I don’t think they’d like it. Technically I don’t own the copyright to the artwork anyway, and am only allowed to post it insofar as there is an unwrtitten rule that we (the Usual Gang of Idiots) can use artwork we’ve done for MAD in self-promotion. Still, I wouldn’t want to “let the cat out of the bag” by showing even just the splash page before it is on the stands for people to read.

The “sneak peeks” are different. I think creating a little (very little) interest in what’s coming up in a future issue is a good thing. I’ll stick to that unless the WB lawyers are reading this, in which case I am claiming plausible denial of wrongdoing based on feigned ignorance of copyright law and infringement issues. It’s called the Dumb Artist Defense.