Websites and Other Cool Stuff

Here are a few sites and cool things to be found out there in Cyberspace…

– Nuckin’ Futs- A JibJab Year in Review

I couldn’t figure out how to directly embed this gem from the JibJab site, but found it on Google video in somewhat disappointing resolution and embedded that instead. Follow the link above to see a razor sharp version of the video. It’s worth it… not only is it funny but it’s chock full of excellent caricatures of 2006 news makers and entertainment personalities. I made a cursory search to try and find out the names of the artists that worked on the semi-animated caricature artwork, but came up empty. It’s good stuff… if anyone knows the names of the artists I’d love to find out.

– SoloGigNews.Com

I did a brief interview here on sologignews.com about freelancing late last month.

According to it’s self description: “SoloGig News is all news, all-the-time, all for freelancers. Call it “news you can use” for the ever-growing freelance set. That’s anything that sheds light on how to find business, keep business, work more productively, manage your own books, pay your taxes, solve your own tech problems, find health insurance and more.”

The website has several interesting but short articles on various aspects of freelancing, mainly in the form of brief interviews with freelance artists, writers, designers, etc. It’s always good to listen to how other freelancers handle the unique aspects of their particular corner of the world.

– Ask Frank Jacobs

Frank Jacobs is a the longest tenured writer for MAD, having first been published in the magazine in 1957. He is probably best known for his song parodies (you know, those song lyrics written to be sung “to the tune of…” in MAD). He was also the author of the book “The MAD World of William M. Gaines“, a biography of Gaines and a history of MAD. I did the caricature above as part of a “MAD Book” the editors gave to Frank in honor of his lifetime of contributions to the magazine.

Frank has started a “column” of sorts on the Mad Mumblings Message Boards, a fan site containing discussion of the magazine and humor in general. It’s really just a thread in one of the forum topics, but in it Frank answers quesitons about MAD, writing and the fine art of basket weaving.

There is also a terrific interview with Frank done by one of the message boards frequent contributors, Scott Gosar. Scott is the proprietor of an on-line humor magazine store, The MAD Store.com and was briefly editor and contributor to Cracked Magazine.