This week’s subject is the late First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (later Onassis) drawn from a photo circa 1961. Despite being a beautiful woman she had many great features to play with including very wide set eyes and wide nose bridge, squat face with apple-round cheekbones and a small but strong chin.

Signed with an Alfred sketch!

Many thanks to those who purchased signed copies of my new MAD book Bo Confidential. I have shipped all purchased books and they will be arriving shortly!

I still have a few dozen left, so anyone who wants one can snap them up here. You can get them with just a signature with or without it being personalized to you, or with a sketch of the “Bo” character or Alfred as pictured above.

Considering how quickly I cranked out the art for that book, I am happy with the final results. I wish I’d had even another week to tweak everything, but deadlines are deadlines.

It seems like three months since a new issue of MAD came out!

Oh…. wait….

In comic books shops tomorrow and on news stands on Tuesday Aug. 18th:

MAD # 501 (October 2009)

• Cover (Mark Frederickson)
• The MAD Quarterly Report (Sam Viviano)
  
• The Fundalini Pages (Jeff Kruse, Rick Tulka, Kiernan P. Schmitt, Bob Staake, P.C. Vey, Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer, Dave Berg, Scott Nickel, Drw Friedman, Duck Edwing, Jacob Lambert, Al Jaffee, Paul Coker, Tom Cheney, Jim Hunt, Gary Hallgren, Ward Sutton)
• Michael Jackson Obit (Uncredited)
  
• Harry Plodder is a Hot-Blooded Putz (Desmond Devlin, Hermann Mejia)
• Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper)
• Bo Confidential Preview (Tom Richmond)
  
• New iPhone Apps (Uncredited)
• William Shatner Twitters while Watching Star Trek (Frank Santopadre)
• MAD’s Guide to Making a Recently-Released GITMO Detainee Feel Welcome in your Town (John Caldwell)
  
• MisMatch.com (Scott Maiko)
• A MAD Look at Star Trek (Sergio Aragonés)
• Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper)
• A TV Commercial We’d Like to See (Dick DeBartolo, Tom Bunk)
• The Hardships Faced by the Super Obese of America’s Wild West (Teresa Burns Parkhurst)
• The Strip Club (Keith Knight, Dustin Glick, Todd Clark, Jason Youngbluth, John Kovaleski, Dan Long, Johnny Ringo, Joey Alison Sayers)
• The MAD Vault: 1973 (Various)
  
• What the Heck is the Difference (Uncredited)
• MAD Fold-In (Al Jaffee)
• Drawn Out Dramas (Sergio Aragonés)

No real contribution from me unless you count the reprinted preview pages from the “Bo Confidential” book.

It’s almost time of the annual Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest in lovely Marcelene, MO. I wrote about the stellar speaker lineup here, but here it is again for those who hate following links:

• Mark Fiore- Editorial cartoonist 
• Wiley Miller- Creator of the comic strip Non Sequitor
• David Mowder- Hallmark Cards cartoonist 
• Sam Viviano- MAD Magazine art director

Every year they have a wonderful show of original cartoon art, and they are once again calling for professional cartoonists to submit work for the show. Here is the call for art by show curators Paul Fell and Mike Edholm:

Dear Fellow Cartoonist:

It’s time to start gearing up for the 11^th. Annual Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest in Marceline, MO, the little town where Walt spent part of his boyhood. Each year we celebrate Walt Disney’s life and work with this small-town festival that includes a parade, presentations by several nationally-know cartoonists, and a cartoon exhibit.

This year’s Disney Toonfest will be held Friday, September 18 and Saturday, September 19. As always, all events are free and open to the public.

If you have exhibited your work in previous Toonfest shows, we appreciate your participation and hope that you will be sending in two or three pieces of your work again this year. If you haven’t sent work to the Toonfest cartoon exhibit, we hope you’ll consider becoming part of our growing list of cartoonist exhibitors.

Here’s the details:

All work should either be matted or mounted on mat board or mounting board. We are no longer able to exhibit work that comes in unmated or unmounted.

While we will accept cartoon submissions right up until the day we hang the show (Thursday, Sept. 17) it will make our lives a lot easier if you can have it at the Toonfest Offices by Monday, September 14.

1. At the end of the Toonfest exhibit we will ship your work back to you at no charge.
2. Please be sure that your contact information is on the back of each piece.
3. Suggested number of cartoons: 2-3
4. The Disney Hometown Toonfest reserves the right to refuse to place work in the show that we consider inappropriate for inclusion in a family-oriented event.

Please send cartoons for the Toonfest exhibit to:

Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest

207 N. Main Street, USA

Marceline, MO 64658

Phone: 660-376-WALT (9258)

Email: toonfest@sbcglobal.net

Kaye Malins  email: kaye.malins@toonfest.net

Barb Boyd  email: barb.boyd@toonfest.net

We will look forward to seeing your work in this year’s Toonfest cartoon exhibit!

Paul Fell and Mike Edholm
Toonfest Exhibit Coordinators

So, there you have it. I have a few original MAD pages in the show from the parody of “Grey’s Anatomy”. Unfortunately I will be unable to attend this year, but if you have never been to Toonfest it is a charming small town celebration of cartooning that is well worth the time.

Above is an hour long PBS video documentary about Los Angeles Times’ editorial cartoonist and terrific caricaturist Paul Conrad. Whether you are a fan of caricature, or of hard hitting and brutally honest editorial cartoons, it’s a great tribute to one of the giants of the cartooning world. You can watch it in a larger format here.

Thanks to The Daily Cartoonist for the heads up.

Q: I thoroughly enjoy your blog and was wondering if you could shed some light on some of your favorite drawing tools (e.g. type of pencils, drawing software, etc.)?

A: I get this question every so often so once I year I do an updated answer. Here is 2009′s version:

In the Studio

For doing my publication work I use a lot of different tools and materials. While most of what I do these days is digital I do occasionally, when the job calls for it, pull out the old paints and such. Here are the tools I like to use in the studio:

Paper and boards-

Paper for roughs- I generally just use my live caricature paper for my rough sketches and layouts, which is a 67lb vellum bristol. The equivilent would be a Strathmore sketchbook heavyweight paper that comes in pads.

Boards for finals- Strathmore 400 or 500 series bristol, usually vellum finish but lately I’ve been using the smoother stuff sometimes… mainly when I know I’ll be doing my “colored line” style of digital finals. I like a smoother line for that. If it’s a real painting I’ll use a piece of illustration board with a kid (rough) surface as it won’t buckle when I apply a lot of washes.

Pencils-

I like the mechanical leadholder type pencils like the Staedtler Mars Technico Lead Holders with F or HB leads. They are comfortable to hold and the lead pointers make keeping a sharp point easy, but it also has a thickness that the ultra thin mechanical pencils don’t have. Otherwise I have been known to just grab a handy No. 2 school pencil.

Pen Nibs-

I use mainly the Gillott 303 but occasionally the classic Hunt 102 crow quill. The Gillotts are tough to find in the US. You have to order them from overseas, and that’s expensive. But, if you have to have them, try:

Scribblers (UK)
John Neal Booksellers

There are others but these are under $1.00 US each. If you look elsewhere, usually the good nibs are found listed under “Copperplate” among calligraphy supplies. These suppliers have lots of cool nibs like Brause and such, so if you are looking for something that “feels right” buy some singles and try out a few. You can get pen holders here as well.

You could try my method of getting Gillott nibs: beg a friend and colleague who lives in Great Britain to order 1,000 nibs at his local art store and bring them with him to the NCN convention in the states, where you pay him for them and then buy him some beers in gratitude. I am still a few Guiness shy of total compensation. Thanks, Steve!

Pen Holders-

There are lots of different kinds, but I found one I really love called the Universal Pen Holder. It’s just a clear plastic rod with a soft plastic sleeve around the end to hold the nib. The soft sleeve also acts as a cushioned finger grip. Simple but great. You can get them at John Neal on this page.

Brushes-

I use a red sable #1 and #2, and a #6 for big areas. Winsor & Newton Series 7′s set the standard but they are expensive. If you take care of them they will last a reasonable length of time, but ink destroys them much faster than watercolors do. You can find these brushes at virtually any art store.

Inks-

For the dip pen I use Pelikan Drawing Ink A. It used to be hard to find this ink but now they are more readily available.  If you want to get a BIG bottle, try:

MisterArt

For the brush I like Dr. Ph.Martin’s Black Star HICARB or Tech 14W Black, which are both much more dense that the Pelikan and make for better brush work.

Digital Color-

I use PhotoShop for all my digital color work. I know a lot of people swear by Painter, but as I can accomplish everything I want to in PhotoShop I do not see a compelling reason to switch. Currently I am using CS3, and I suppose eventually I will upgrade but again I feel no need to rush to do so.

Real Paints!-

When I do get out the real paints I basically work in a combination of acrylics and watercolors with both a brush and some airbrush touches. I have no preference as to the manufacturers of such materials, and have a hodge-podge of tubes of various types. The last time I did a real painting was last winter for a personal commission, which I didn’t bother to scan. Here’s a spot from a few years ago I used real paint to do:

Live Caricatures

Pencil-

I learned to work in pencil so I stick with that. My pencil of choice is a Caran D’ache FixPencil 3 using the 6B leads. I also use a Create-a-Color 5.6mm leadholder with a 4B lead.

Blending Stomp-

Standard No. 8 stomp for shading

Airbrush-

I use the Iwata HP-SB Plus for live caricature work with a 13 bottle palette. I also use this same brush in the studio.

Airbrush Paint-

Mostly Com-Art Opaque and Transparent paints by Medea.

Thanks to Tony Filetti 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!

Marginal Talent Dept.

That headline is a joke, or course. The only thing marginal about the talents of Sergio Aragonés is the placement of one of his ongoing MAD magazine contributions (i.e. those great cartoons in the margins of each issue). You can see for yourself now that his original art show is now on exhibit at the Ojai Valley Museum through October 4th. There are several events Sergio will be appearing at during the show, including:

Opening Reception – Saturday, August 22, 5-7 pm
$25 per person
By reservation only

Download invitation and reply card (pdf)
August 30:  Cartooning with Sergio
October 4:  Sergio on Comics & Humor

Current 2009 Members: $6 per person
Nonmembers: $8 per person

Major Payne Dept.

One of the most respected and recognized illustrators working today has finally gotten into the 21st century and put up a web page. C.F. Payne, whose client list is wayyyy too long and impressive to even begin to list here, has his own little corner of the web where you can check out his work, prints he has of some of his incredible paintings and even contact him for a private commission!

Sorry, I am completely sold out of all my copies of Bo Confidential, and I won’t be ordering anymore to sign, draw in or sell here on the MAD Blog. If you still want a copy, you can easily order it from Amazon here. Thanks to everyone who purchased one from me, I hope you enjoyed it.

I took the above picture today when at the gym, demonstrating the results of my being unable to work out my left side (still!!) due to my rotator cuff surgery back in March. I am still several months away from even beginning to get back into doing exercises to build back up my left side. The drawing below isn’t quite the gross exaggeration one might think it was, is it?

I drew live caricatures at my Valleyfair theme park operation the last few days, but forgot my camera. I took one picture with my iPhone which turned out halfway decent:

I also did a new park sample based on a past “sketch o’the week”:

Next time I will try and remember the camera.