Friday at the Reubens usually features several seminars/presentations by guest speakers, followed by a welcome party. This year the speaker line up typically stellar with three presentations.

First up was Steve Moore. Steve is the creator of the syndicated feature “In the Bleachers” and the hit feature film “Open Season”. He talked about his experiences in translating “print” ideas and properties into other media including television and feature films.

Legendary animator Eric Goldberg spoke about his work and process. Eric worked on such Disney projects as “Aladdin”, “Rhapsody in Blue” from Fantasia 2000 and directed “Pocahontas” and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action”. He talked about his upcoming Disney film “The Frog Prince”.

Finally, movie poster artist extraordinaire Drew Struzan did a great presentation showcasing his work. Drew has illustrated hundreds of major movie posters, book covers, video game packaging and his work is instantly recognizable all around the world. He had a very informal talk that consisted of answering audience questions as his work was projected on the screen. He had lots of stories about working with “Hollywood” and some of the difficulties and challenges associated with that industry.

Illustrator Drew Struzan

Following the seminars was the welcome party, by the pool on the roof of the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. It’s always fun to hang out with all these famous cartoonists and people you have admired your whole life. It does not get old.

Sorry I don’t have many decent pictures of the seminars or the party… I’ll do better today.

The Lovely Anna and I are settling in here in Los Angeles for the Reuben Awards weekend, which officially gets started today. This year I have been elected to the NCS board as a vice president, so last evening we attended a dinner and get together for board members at the nearby home of cartooning legend Mell Lazarus (Momma and Miss Peach)

Mell is an amazing guy, who not only created the two long running strips listed above, but authored two successful novels, writes television scripts and plays, and is a member of Mensa. At 81 he can still out-party me.

Mell and his wife Sally have a beautiful home outside Los Angeles, and in it is one of cartooning’s most treasured artifacts… and I don’t mean Mell. I mean Mell’s piano. Many years ago Mell and Sally decided to buy a baby grand piano, and got a good deal on a small white one that needed refinishing. Instead of refinishing it, they invited cartoonists to draw on it. The result is an incredible piece of art with hundreds of cartoonist’s doodles and signatures on it in their living room:

I was honored to be asked to draw on it as well, which instantly lowered the value of the piano but Mell insisted.

Rina Piccilo (Tina’s Groove) and Dave Coverly (Speed Bump) also drew on the piano last night, so I think their  positive contributions offset my depreciation of the piano’s value and Mell broke even.

The Lovely Anna and I are headed out to Los Angeles today to attend the annual National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards Weekend. As hard as I tried I couldn’t completely finish this book job I am working on so, as usual, I will be spending some time in the hotel room working on a job while I am there. No inking this time, though. Actually I decided to just do one more total all nighter and finish the book, with the exception of the cover which is still in review, before I left… so it’s all party now, baby. I will release details about the book when it’s permissible with the publisher.

I will be doing daily blogs from the weekend complete with pictures and reports, and will be doing live Twittering of the Saturday evening Reuben awards themselves announcing divisional winners and the winner of the “Cartoonist of the Year” as they happen… so follow me on Twitter (link in the blogroll on the right) to get the scoop.

Another quick one for the “Sketch o’the Week” in deference to my crazy schedule. This week I picked another actor’s face from an old entertainment magazine… a younger Benjamin Bratt.

The National Doodle Day auctions are winding down and my doodle for Gillian Anderson’s cause fighting neurofibromatosis ended up selling for $266.50! That is very cool and thanks to any readers that bid on the sketch. I’ve donated or done original art for auctions before where the art gets sold for next to nothing and that is always depressing. This time it got the charity at least a little bit of coin.

National Doodle Day is an annual event where dozens of doodles are auctioned off to raise funds to benefit NF, Inc., an organization dedicated to providing support to individuals and families affected by neurofibromatosis (NF).

Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder that affects one in every 2,500 births. NF is more common than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy and Huntington’s Disease combined. Funds raised from the Doodle Day auction will go to support education, advocacy, coalitions, and research for treatments and a cure.

The art for the cover of the next issue of Stay Tooned! Magazine.
Click image for a closer look…

I have been singing the praises of John Read‘s fantastic publication Stay Tooned! for some time now, and was delighted when John asked me to illustrate the cover of the upcoming issue number four AKA the “MAD” issue. The issue won’t be in print until at least next month, but John gave me permission the other day to preview the art I did for the cover.

The issue contains profiles of some of the Usual Gang of Idiots: Sergio Aragonés, Paul Coker Jr., Jack Davis, Don “Duck” Edwing, John Kovaleski, Scott Nickel, Ted Rall and myself, along with the usual other great stuff you have come to expect from Stay Tooned!. It was a fun cover to do and I can’t wait to see the issue. Although he told me he isn’t ready to do so quite yet, I am sure John will start promoting and taking advanced orders for this issue soon.

Here’s some close ups of some of the areas of the illustration:

Jack Davis!

Sergio Aragones!

Paul Coker Jr!

So keep an eye out for this one coming soon!

Q: Do you ever think color MAD cartoons would’ve been funnier in B&W?

A: No, I do not think that the color art in MAD would be funnier in black and white. Color is incidental technique and has little impact on the effectiveness of a cartoon. A cartoon is either funny or it is not. Most of that has to do with the concept/writing of the cartoon and in art terms with the drawing/communication. Funny drawings are funny drawings. The work of MAD artists like Jack Davis, Don Martin and Sergio Aragonés is visually funny. If they were to take their art from the black and white days of MAD and color it, it would still be visually funny. Not one ounce of humor would be taken away from it. Conversely, a piece of bad cartooning will not suddenly become funny just because of the technique it’s rendered in. I explain this concept to the new artists who come to work with us doing live caricatures at the theme park concessions and start using the airbrush to color their drawings. I never bother asking if potential artists have any airbrush experience because the use of the airbrush or any coloring technique has little to do with good caricature. I look only at their drawing and observational skills. I tell these new artists that the drawing is by far the most important thing, and only functional skill with the airbrush is required for a good result. A bad caricature with a really good paint job is still a bad caricature. A good caricature with only a mediocre paint job is still a good caricature.

This is a lesson it took me a long time to realize applied to my illustration work as well. I used to study the inking of Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Mort Drucker and other classic humorous illustrators/ cartoonists trying to figure out why my inking didn’t have the same pop and life as theirs did. I tried the same tools they used, the same inks and the same papers. I used to look at their originals and marvel at the seemingly loose almost careless nature of the inking and wonder how they did it. It took a long time to come to the conclusion that their inking techniques were as incidental as airbrush color on caricatures is. It’s the DRAWING underneath that counts. A Jack Davis drawing that he inks with a pen nib, brush, marker, Bic pen or a sharpened stick is still going to be a Jack Davis drawing. The presentation is only the medium that allows our eyes to see it. Once I learned that lesson and started drawing with the ink instead of concentrating on the “quality of my line” my inking started becoming more energetic and had more life. Now all I have to do is learn to draw as good as Jack, Mort and Wally. Uhhhhhh… I’m not holding my breath on that one.

I do kind of lament the fact that I started with MAD right as they switched to color, but at the same time I recognize that the switch to color was one of the biggest reasons I got in at MAD… I was capable of movie/TV parody work and could to it in digital color. They needed someone like that and I came along at the right time. Still the classic black and white look is… well… classic. It would have been fun to have done more of that kind of work in MAD.

Thanks to bishopslikepawn 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!

Back in March I posted a bit of news about longtime MAD Magazine editor Al Feldstein having health difficulties and needing heart surgery.

My friend Mark Evanier posted an update on his excellent News from ME blog about Al’s progress. Mark writes:

Also getting better is the legendary Al Feldstein, who was the writer-editor of Tales from the Crypt and other classic EC Comics, and the editor of MAD magazine for 29 years. Al underwent double-bypass aortic valve replacement (i.e., heart surgery) on April 17 at the world famous Mayo Clinic. He’s home now and recovering, and we’re happy about that, too.

Turns out Al had his surgery at the original Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, which is a mere hour from my house.

It’s great to hear all is well and Al is recovering. Get well soon.

I see trouble… and in my road.

Neil Cuadra is getting more press for his latest CD effort than Axl Rose got for “Chinese Democracy”… but then again that’s not saying much.

Cuadra is a huge MAD fan from Los Angelses, CA who fulfilled “a dream” by getting a letter published in MAD‘s “Letters and Tomatoes Dept.” by sending in his portrait of Alfred E. Neuman created by nothing but AOL junk mail CDs. Inspired by a MAD parody chastising AOL for all the junk diskettes they used to send out (since changed to CDs), Cuadra collected the shiny junk disks from AOL and other companies for over ten years until he had enough to create his portrait, which is 400 square feet. You can read about Neil’s MAD artistic endeavor on the Associated Press website. The AP story has been picked up on a number of websites and print media.

MAD published Cuadra’s letter and picture of his creation in issue #500, followed by a typical snarky remark by “Ed”:

“You just blew our mind. You used junk mail from AOL to create a piece of art that became junk mail to US! The circle is now complete! We look forward to your rendition of Spy Vs. Spy made entirely of Valpack coupons!”