Surf’s Up Dept.

A sm??⬨?rg??⬨‚Ä¢sbord of cartoon, caricature and MAD related website, links, news articles and announcements!

You Know What They Say About Guys With Big Heads Dept.-

A hilarious video demonstrating why caricaturists perhaps should not be police sketch artists… except in certain cases.

Put your Funny Where your Mouth Is Dept.–

The Pittsburgh area Toonseum is having it’s first public fund raiser in May… a worthy cause. Here are the details:

COMIC, CARTOON AND ANIMATION FANS UNITE!

You and your friends are invited to KA-BLAM! A party to benefit the ToonSeum

Your Host: Rob Rogers
When: Saturday, May 3rd, 7:30 – 11:30 pm
Where: ToonSeum, at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
10 Children’s Way Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Tickets: $35.00 in advance (ordering details to come)

The evening will feature:
Live music, DJ and dancing, caricature artists
Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art Salon, demonstration by cartoonists, a silent auction
door prizes, food and drink by Pittsburgh favorites, and more!

Contact Info:
Joe Wos
Executive Director
ToonSeum
“A Museum With Character”
412-325-1060
joe@toonseum.com
www.toonseum.org

The mission of The ToonSeum is to celebrate the art of cartooning. Our goal is to promote a deeper appreciation of cartoonists and their work through hands-on workshops, community outreach,
cartoon-oriented educational programming and exhibitions of original cartoon art.

Let Friedman Ring Dept.–

MAD artist extraordinare Drew Friedman as an exhibit of his superb art opening this Thursday, March 27th at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery in Seattle. Drew will appear for a book signing and the opening of the exhibition of his original artwork on the 27th from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Visit here for all the details.

To PC is Human, to Mac… Divine Dept.–

Here’s an interesting link to a forum thread discussing the latest “Monkey theme” issue of MAD, issue #488… in a Mac computer forum of all places.

I’ve found that readers either loved or hated that issue. Seems these folks liked it. The most telling of the posts on the thread, however, is post #3 by “Abstract”:

They still make MAD?

Sigh….

While on the subject of MAD #488, it is exactly one year from right now when MAD #500 hits the stands. I started in #399, and #400 was a big deal at the time, so I hope they’ve got some fun stuff planned for #500.

Wack and Roll Dept.–

Image from the wackypackages.org website

As a kid in the 1970’s there were a few things I collected as much and as often as I could get my hands on them: Anything Star Wars but especially the bubble gum trading cards, Batman comics, Micronauts toys… but one thing I couldn’t get enough of was Wacky Packages stickers from Topps. My friends and I thought these parodies of popular products were hilarious. They are often associated with MAD Magazine, although they did not have any connection other than MAD artist Tom Bunk did some art for them recently. Other MAD artists may have contributed as well, but Tom’s the only regular one I am sure of.

This May a coffee table book about the Wacky Packages phenomenon will be releases which includes an interview with Art Spiegelman, the original artist and conceiver of the first series of Wacky packages. The book will feature images of all 232 stickers from series 1-7, circa 1973-74. Check out the official Wacky Packages website, from where you can preorder the book.