This week’s sketch is of recent media sensation and “Britain’s Got Talent” phenom Susan Boyle. Just in case you have been living under a rock for the last 11 days, she is a contestant in a UK talent show who created a media storm with her performance on the show on Saturday the 11th.

All of England was buzzing about her during our trip to London. She is this dowdy, frumpy sort of middle aged woman who acted very “cheeky” and goofy before her number, and everyone watching was expecting the second coming of William Hung. Instead she belted out a flawless and spine tingling rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables”, a difficult song, with a voice of gold. If you ever wondered why all the superstar singers seem to also look drop dead gorgeous, and where all the ordinary looking people with extraordinary talent are hiding… here’s one.

It took a little over 57 years, but this week MAD Magazine‘s 500th issue hits the stands… thereby officially thumbing their noses at TIME Magazine‘s famous critical opinion of the publication as a “short lived satirical pulp”. MAD might not be doing well in this age of dying print publications, but lasting 57 years and 500 issues is no mean feat.

Upon my gently broaching the subject of whether or not I’d have a piece in #500, art director Sam Viviano told me he was being asked the sames thing by a staggering number of current and former MAD contributors.

The editors and staff wanted to have issue 500 contain as many of the artists and writers who helped MAD get to issue 500 as possible, so MAD took a sort of “kitchen sink” approach to the issue. They added 6 pages for a total of 58, with only 6 pages of ads (and that includes two pages for MAD subscriptions and MAD books/stuff). In fact, all four of the interior “paid” ads appear in the front of the issue, in the letters section and only one in the Fundalini Pages. After that it’s nothing but MADness.

Speaking of the Fundalini Pages, MAD expanded these to include additional content, including a few appearances by some long time MAD contributors who aren’t as frequently seen in the magazine or have been absent for some time. Don “Duck” Edwing and Paul Peter Porges each have a gag cartoon, Bob Clarke, Rick Tulka, and Paul Coker do spot illustrations. Some mini versions of classic and current features are also included in the Fundalini Pages. Al Jaffee has a mini “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions”, Sam Sisco does a “Celebrity Cause of Death Betting Odds” and there is a three panel “Monroe” mini comic. All the usual Fundalini features appear as well.

Interspersed throughout the issue are two page visual tribute collages to some of the highlights from 100 issue “blocks” of MAD. “MAD- Issues 1-100″ for example is filled with images from those issues including many artists who have passed away like Dave Berg, Bill Elder, Kelly Freas, Harvey Kurtzman, Don Martin, Norman Mingo, Jack Rickard, Basil Wolverton, Wally Wood and George Woodbridge. as well as many others still with us. The other blocks of 100 get similar treatments. Also throughout the issue are “MAD Factoids”… short but bizarre facts about MAD and the Usual Gang of Idiots.

There is also a feature called “A MAD Look at Marginals”, which features 500 of Sergio Aragonés’ favorite marginals.

Originally I was working on a two page gag article for this issue, but it got bumped (should be in #501) in favor of my doing a spot for a classic MAD feature, a song parody written by Frank Jacobs. The artist I am appearing with in the article are some heavyweight company: Mort Drucker, James Warhola, Gerry Gersten, myself, Angelo Torres, Harry North Esq., Richard Williams and Hermann Mejia. Gerry Gersten, Angelo Torres and especially Harry North have not been in MAD for some time, so it was great to see their contributions. Conspicuously missing from the new art “cameos” is the great Jack Davis… I have no idea why.

My assignment was a spot showing the “Big Three” automaker CEOs begging Congress for their bailout.

I was happy to get a piece in issue #500, especially considering the company I was with in the same article. In classic MAD fashion they make fun of their current publishing plight in the last panel of the article.

The sad part is, since I (mostly) have that two pager for issue #501 done, I will not get another assignment for MAD Magazine until the end of the summer at the earliest, unless they have me do something else for #501 as well. However MAD has other “irons in the fire” and there just might be some different projects and endevours from them that will get announced soon … so stay “tooned”.

This is it!! Big number 500 is in comic book stores this week and on news stands April 28th:

MAD # 500 (June 2009)

• Cover (Mark Frederickson)
• The Fundalini Pages (Jeff Kruse & Liz Lomax, Garth Gerhart, Duck Edwing, Tom Cheney, Jeff Kruse & Scott Bricher, Sam Sisco, Michael Grinspan & Bob Clarke, Peter Paul Porges, Al Jaffee, Stan Sinberg & Bob Staake,
• The Notorious A.I.G. (Scott Bricher)
  
• The Fundalini Pages, con’t (Scott Maiko & Leonardo Rodriguez, Desmond Devlin & Kevin Pope, Peter Bagge, Anthony Barbieri & Tom Fowler & Carl Peterson & Rob Liegh, Jeff Kruse & José Garibaldi, Jacob Lambert, Jeff Kruse & Paul Coker, Barry Liebmann & Ward Sutton, P.C. Vey, Dick DeBartolo, Arnie Kogen & Rick Tulka, Jeff Kruse & Evan Dorkin, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, John Caldwell, )
• 500 Issues of MAD, A Visual History: MAD Issues 1-100 (Various)
  
• The Dead Celebrity Apprentice (Desmond Devlin, Tom Bunk)
• Spy vs Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper)
• 500 Issues of MAD, A Visual History: MAD Issues 101-200 (Various)
  
• Planet TAD!!!!! (Tim Carvell)
• A MAD Look at Marginals (Sergio Aragonés)
• 500 Issues of MAD, A Visual History: MAD Issues 201-300 (Various)
  
• A Message to the Republican Party from Rush Limbaugh (Jack Syracuse)
• The Strip Club (Jason Youngbluth, Paul Gilligan, Dustin Glick, Dan Long, Joey Sayers, Ted Rall, Scott Nickel, Christopher Baldwin, Douglas Paszkiewicz)
• 500 Issues of MAD, A Visual History: MAD Issues 301-400 (Various)
  
• Great Art Masterpieces… and What they Would Be Saying Today (Adam Rust, art by a bunch of dead guys)
• MAD Fold-In (Al Jaffee)
• MAD Googles Google’s Headquarters (Ryan Pagelow)
• Insanity Claws (Desmond Devlin)
• 500 Issues of MAD, A Visual History: MAD Issues 401-500 (Various)
• The Bailout Hymn of the Republic (Writer: Frank Jacobs, Art: Mort Drucker, James Warhola, Gerry Gertsen, Tom Richmond, Angelo Torres, Harry North, Esq., Richard Williams, Hermann Mejia)
• The MAD Guide to Man Boobs (Ryan Pagelow, Drew Friedman)
• MAD Fold-In (Al Jaffee)
  
• Drawn Out Dramas (Sergio Aragonés)
• MAD Factoids (Uncredited)

I will post a sneak peek at the art I did for “The Bailout Hymn of the Republic” tomorrow, plus some other info about this landmark issue.

Q:  I recently saw a display for some caricaturists at the Sydney Easter Show that showed the caricature of you done by Mort Drucker. They were using it as a sample of work. I know your work itself is also always being used to promote others (placed on their displays meant to make potential customers think they did it themselves).  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

A: Here’s a picture from the Sydney Easter Show he is referring to:

Photo courtesy of Aussie cartoonist Lee Sheppard

That’s a caricature of me by Mort Drucker on the left.

I also see (from left to right) George W. Bush by Court Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger by Jason Seiler, Baltimore caricaturist Mike Hasson by Jan Op de Beeck. I do not recognize the artist who did the Al Sharpton on the far right. I’m not sure why the artists in question here would use caricatures of regular shmoes like Mike and myself, no matter how good the caricatures might be, but there you are. My work is not actually plagiarized here, it’s Mort’s version of me, but my work a frequent victim of this sort of dishonesty.

Sadly this is a common practice by many “street” caricaturists. I’ve seen my work and work I recognize plagiarized all over the world:

From Times Square in New York City

More Times Square

Yet more Times Square

This I saw in Place de Tertre, Montmartre in Paris

I’ve seen my work on other people’s displays in Phoenix, San Diego, New Orleans and even right here in Minnesota. I’ve also had reports of my work being used thusly in Rome, Greece and London. I didn’t see anyone plagiarizing me in my trip to London last week, but it was raining a lot and the few street artists I did see (mainly at Leicester Square) seemed to mostly have their own work up. Sometimes they have redrawn it as an “original”, sometimes they have literally printed a grainy copy from the internet images.

Why do these street artist’s do this? If they can draw well enough to do it for money in a place like Times Square, Rome or Paris, why not do their own samples?

I can’t answer that for certain. For some, it’s a matter of simply not being a very good caricaturist. Some of those Times Square artists are awful, and can barely draw at all. They sell their wares the same way the people next to them sell watches that look like Rolexes but stop running within a week. They show one thing (like other people’s samples) and then sell another and rely on tourists getting confused or not wanting to create a scene to get their money. Those people have no choice but to show other people’s work as their display art, as they are incapable of doing their own. They, incidentally, give real caricaturists a bad name.

Others, though, have the art skills to do their own samples. So why the rip-offs? I think it’s just plain laziness. They don’t want to spend the time needed to work up good looking samples… they’d rather steal another artist’s work as opposed to doing it themselves. Maybe it’s because they know they aren’t as good as Sebastian Krüger (who is???) so they show his work or the work of others rather than display their own honest skill.

So what are my thoughts about this? Obviously I don’t like it, don’t condone it and would rather these artists not represent my work or the work of any other artists as their own. Do I run up to an offending street artist and confront them? No, I do not. Legally they are doubtless in the wrong but realistically I have little legal power to do anything about it, nor the desire to fight an unwinnable battle. Confrontation does nothing anyway… most of these people do not care about anything except parting the tourist from his or her money. I have literally seen the same ripped off samples hanging on different artist’s displays within a few feet of each other. The contempt they must have for their potential customers, and for the artists they are plagiarizing, could not be more plain. Why would they care about my remonstrances.

Sadly this is the price you pay for sharing your work on the internet. It’s impossible to stop copyright thieves from taking your work and doing what they will with it. I have seen my art being sold on postage stamp collections from South American and Russian countries, as posters and prints on eBay, on mouse pads and coffee mugs… I even saw a picture of my Jesse Ventura caricature tattooed on some guy’s arm in my local newspaper once. The more commercial thievery I put a stop to if possible, but that is a different animal. On the plus side, I can take a little satisfaction in the fact that the very accessibility of my work on the internet that makes it a target for thievery also males it easy for others to spot the plagiarism. I get many reports from internet acquaintances who tell me they busted an artist using my work somewhere and let them know what they thought of it. At the very least, it might annoy the perpetrator.

While I might shake my head at this practice by unscrupulous street caricaturists, what I most definitely do not think is that I am being flattered by being plagiarized. Some caricaturists I know seem to feel this way if they happen to see their work being used in this manner. They feel their work is being praised by being worthy of copyright infringement. Nothing could be farther from the truth. These artists are showing a complete lack of respect for the work and artists they are ripping off. It is a crime of convenience and laziness, not of admiration. Witness how they are so stupid as to use caricatures of other caricaturists as opposed to celebrities, like these guys in Australia. It’s something to be sickened or saddened by, not appreciated.

I’m a big believer in Karma and the old adage “what goes around, comes around”. Basically I’m saying that doing this does not, in the long run, do anything but harm to these artists. If these folks want to still be doing caricatures on a soggy street corner 20 years from now for a few euros a pop, then they are going about it the right way. Nobody ever achieved anything of lasting worth by practices like these… even the simple effort of drawing one’s own samples and practicing good ethics eventually brings higher rewards that stealing from others will do. It’s very sad, actually. I feel sorry for them… but I still wish they wouldn’t steal my work nor that of my colleagues.

Thanks to Grant Brown 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!

After a great week in London, The Lovely Anna and I are going home today. Back to reality… and a couple of jobs needing urgent attention.

London was great fun. There are so many famous places and things to see that one week was no where near long enough. We could easily have filled another week and still only seen the major things. Still, we did pretty well and feel like we got a good feel for the city.

I accomplished most of my goals, except I got tired of fish n’ chips after the third day so “eating fish n’ chips everyday” was probably too ambitious a goal. I did have a meat pie, spotted dick, bread pudding, several kinds of tart and about a dozen different kinds of cask ale. Just to be clear, the “spotted dick” I had was the pudding and custard dessert with currants, not the kind that requires penicillin to clear up. I had that kind after a weekend in Tijuana.

The Richmonds and the Hearns

So, Cheerio, London! Back to the States. Turns out being overseas on April 15th does NOT excuse you from filing income tax…

I was clearing out the old tear sheet files and came across this old job from 1992 that represents some interesting points about the dos and don’ts of freelance illustration. This was the first job I remember getting directly from my sourcebook ad in the “Directory of Illustration”. I almost turning it down because I was not sure ethically if I should do it, considering the circumstances.

The client was a company called “Business and Legal Reports”, and as the name suggests they usually designed and printed business and legal reports. They had started what would be a series of comic book-like educational booklets meant to be sold to schools with anti-drugs, anti-smoking, etc. subjects.

The ethical dilemma was that I was not asked to create this comic from scratch. What I was being asked to do was finish a partially pencilled and laid out comic already worked on by a previous illustrator… IN HIS STYLE. This I was not too keen on, and I tried to convince the client to let me re-draw the several already completed pencilled pages in my own way, then continue to draw the other pages in my own style.

This they balked at, partly because the timeframe we had was extremely tight. The reason I was being asked to do this is that the other illustrator had apparently dropped the ball rather badly and put them so far behind that this was a bit of an emergency job. I don’t know the name of the illustrator nor the specifics of what happened, but the client seemed very put off by the artist’s performance. I got the feeling that stages of the job were completed much later than promised, and eventually the deadline was upon them and both parties agreed to move on with other plans.

In the end I decided that, given the original artist had lost the job via his or her own choices and created this situation, taking over the job was not an ethical no-no. I was disappointed that I had to ape his style of drawing, but the client insisted saying the style had been approved already and to redo that process at this time was impossible. So, I accepted and completed the job. This led to my doing, in my own style, several other similar booklet comics for the same company.

The main point this illustrates (pardon the pun) is that professionalism counts. The original illustrator may have had serious personal reasons why he or she was unable to fulfill their obligations, but regardless it resulted in not only losing the job, but also the opportunity for more work with that client. Likely others as well… as I have said many times art directors are the source of word-of-mouth work but that applies in both directions. Do a great job for one and they will recommend you to others, but drop the ball and they will pass that along as well. As I remember those jobs were very well paying.

By the way I did this job the old fashioned way, using a film-pos and acetate overlay, then watercoloring and airbrushing the color. The original art for this job is long gone, but I think I’ve got other jobs using this technique that I can dig out one day and share how it works.

Mitre Square, site of the Catherine Eddows murder

Yesterday The Lovely Anna played along and accompanied me on a “Jack the Ripper” walk through the Whitechapel area of London. Being somewhat of a “Ripperologist” I was looking forward to seeing the actual sites of the murders and walking the same streets where once walked the Ripper, his victims and those who sought to stop him. We were also accompanied by caricaturist Steve Hearn and his wife Wendy. Steve in fact had spent the day driving us to and touring with us Windsor Castle. Wonderful people.

The tour was very entertaining and I highly recommend a guided walking tour of London by the company “London Walks” if you ever chance to visit. It’s much more personal to see the sites from the ground as opposed to some bus, and the guides know their stuff.

These are the sames cobblestones once stained with Catherine Eddows’ blood
where her body was found. Eddows was the Ripper’s fourth “official” victim.

The Ripper tour guide was knowledgeable, funny and thorough. Unfortunately… and I was prepared for this, very few of the critical sites are still anything like they were in the autumn of 1888 when the Ripper prowled the streets. Mary Kelly’s murder site is now a parking ramp. Another is part of a newer business area. We only visited three murder sites, but we did see some things along the way that are still as the were in those days, just as they must have been when looked upon by the Ripper and the East Enders who he terrorized.

There was still plenty to see. The street in the photo above shows one of the few areas, other than the murder sites, where evidence proved the Ripper traversed. After the body of Catherine Eddows was found, a bloody, missing piece of her apron was found in a passageway on Glouston Street just down this road. The Ripper must have run from Mitre Square past this spot and down this road to where the piece of apron was discovered. The streets and buildings here are very like they would have looked as the Ripper fled past them at about 1:00 am on the 30th of September, 1888. Next to the piece of apron, on the wall of the passageway, was chalked the famous and much discussed graffiti: “The Juwes are not the men that will be blamed for nothing”.

The famous Ten Bells Pub

There were many other Ripper sites that I would have liked to see, but this was more of a casual Ripper tour… “Ripper Lite” as some Ripperologists might say. I did not see the Hoops and Grapes Pub, the oldest surviving pub in London (having escaped the great fire of 1666), London Hospital, No. 259 Whitechapel High Street and other sites that would have been familiar to the Ripper and his victims.

The most fascinating thing about the Ripper is how the coinciding of the economic times, class prejudice, police department turf clashes and especially the driving force of the relatively new sensational newspaper media fed the flames and complexity of the crimes.

I also highly recommend Alan Moore‘s graphic novel “From Hell” and the film made from the book starring Johnny Depp. They are a variation on the theory put forward in the book “The Final Solution” that involved the Freemasons and a Royal coverup.

In honor of our visit this week to London, here is England’s future king, Charles, Prince of Wales. We will be visiting Windsor castle today with friend and fellow caricaturist Steve Hearn. I’ll say hi to Chuck if I see him.

In Holmes’ sitting room

London has no shortage of sights to see, and we have barely scratched the surface after only two full days. We’ve been to several famous sections of the city including Covent Gardens, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Sloane Square, Regent’s Park, etc. Today we’ll be getting to some of the really big things like the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge and others.

The Lovely Anna and I always assemble a list of things we want to see on any trip we take. it consists of “Tom and Anna things”, “Anna things” and “Tom things”. It’s history that interests me most on trips like this, so I like to seek out the exhibits and sights that have historical significance and where I can learn and soak in the history of the places I am visiting. Europe is amazing in that regard, since things that are considered “old” in the USA are brand spanking new compared to things in Europe. Anna likes this as well, so those are always “Tom and Anna things”. Anna loves museums and art, so she usually has a long list of those places she wants to visit. I admit I quickly get bored looking at old paintings and sculptures, especially if they are not from or concerned with the area we are visiting. However, “Anna’s things” list gets it’s due attention, and I always find enough old furniture or architecture to keep me interested.

However I am a geek at heart, so my “list” of things are usually of that ilk. On this short trip to London, I had two things on my list… visiting the “Jack the Ripper” murder sites and 221b Baker Street, the fictional home of Sherlock Holmes.

221b Baker Street is the home of the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Just down Baker Street from Marleybone St., it contains a facsimile of the rooms Holmes lived from 1888  to 1904 and shared with Dr. John Watson for some of that time. The London tour guides grade the Holmes Mueseum as “overrated” but as a longtime fan of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories I loved it. They paid great attention to detail in constructing the rooms, including such specifics as exactly 17 steps from the street to the flat, the sitting room with the slipper Holmes kept his tobacco in and dozens of other things straight from the stories. I expected meticulous attention to detail… if the proprietors of the museum expected to satisfy real “Sherlockians”, they would need to get it right.

The museum also had upper floors with wax figures depicting some famous moments from Holmes’ adventures, and cases with artifacts from stories as well.

The mantle with correspondence “transfixed by a knife”, slipper, etc.

Holmes’ corner laboratory

The severed human ears in coarse salt from “The Cardboard Box”

The judgment of “Charles Augustus Milverton”

Mr. Jabez Wilson copies the Encyclopedia Brittanica from “The Red-Headed League”

Dr. Grimesby Roylott gets his in “The Speckled Band”

My father-in-law Joe Voss plays along as Dr. Watson.

One of the best parts was the historical accuracy of the items and rooms. I’m no expert on Victorian era artifacts but the gas lights, the furniture, the decor and items seemed perfectly suited to the times. It was amazing how small the rooms were, but that to is in keeping with Conan Doyle’s descriptions.

All in good fun.

I was once again privileged to be a part of the selection of the annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship recipient this year. The National Cartoonist Society Foundation just announced the 2009 winner:

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2009 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship Winner

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) is happy to announce the winner of the 2009 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship. Chris Houghton (pictured), 20, is a junior at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan where he studies illustration. Houghton was chosen from among 120 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award weekend in Los Angeles in May. The scholarship applicants submitted up to five examples of their work along with an entry form that included short essays on their current and future plans in cartooning. Entries were judged by a jury of eight professional cartoonist who are members of the board of directors of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation.

Houghton’s studies at the College for Creative Studies have included character design for animation and writing and illustrating his own comics. He has also submitted gag cartoons and spot illustrations for the school’s student magazine. Aside from his class work, Houghton has also dabbled in freelancing including working on T-Shirt and logo designs and drawing caricatures at events.

Last summer he illustrated a 130 page NASCAR coloring book and is currently doing illustration and concept art for a children’s video game company. He would like to do magazine illustration and work in animation.

The Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship is an annual award established in memory of Jay Kennedy, the late King Features comics editor, from an initial  from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from other prominent cartoonist. It is administered by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. The scholarship is awarded to a college student in the United States, Canada or Mexico that will be in their Junior or Senior year of college during the following academic year, selected by a panel of professional cartoonists.

Houghton will receive his award and meet the professional cartoonists who selected him at the National Cartoonists Society’s Annual Reuben Awards banquet in Los Angeles on May 22nd.

You can see more of Chris Houghton’s work on his website.

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On a personal note, I’m happy to say Chris, a frequent reader of The MAD Blog, learned about the scholarship here. Congratulations, Chris! See you in L.A.!