Q: I see that full sized Batman in the pictures of your studio. Is that really a costume? Where did you get that awesome suit?

A: I get at least one of these every year as Halloween approaches. Here is one of the pictures in question:

And yes, it’s costume:

That’s me!… I’m Batman.

It’s an exact replica of the Val Kilmer “Panther” style suit from “Batman Forever”… complete with nipples . You can read all about how I put this together, along with lots of other pictures on this post: The Saga of the Batsuit.

The great Sergio Aragonés is celebrating 50 years as a professional cartoonist, which since 1963 include his contributions to MAD Magazine. The Huffington Post has an artcile about Sergio and his new book MAD’s Greatest Artists: Sergio Aragonés: Five Decades of His Finest Works (which, BTW, is as fantastic as you would expect). Congratulations mi amigo… and here’s to many more years!

I’ve been remiss in linking to the weekly “NCS Member Spotlight” over on the website of the National Cartoonists Society that gets posted every Thursday. Put together by NCS Member Leif Peng, these are short retrospectives of the work of some of the long standing members of the Society… well worth a look. This week’s Spotlight is on commercial/advertising cartoonist Roy Doty. Last week’s was on the legendary Jack Davis.

An Aston Martin DB5 built for the filming of the 1965 James Bond film “Thunderball”complete with (mostly) functioning gadgets was auctioned off yesterday in London. The famous modifications include front machine guns that shoot blanks, an ejector seat (that doesn’t work), radar navigation, a nail spreader, tire shredders, bullet shield and a revolving number plate. Man, I really wanted that car, but as it went for $4 million it was exactly $3,999,990 more than what The Lovely Anna allows me to spend in online auctions.

For about seven years I had the cheapest of all the Bond cars, a BMW Z3 convertible like the one Pierce Brosnan‘s Bond drove in “GoldenEye”… then my kids started getting drivers licenses and I had to sell it to make room in the garage for more practical vehicles.

I recently rewatched Peter Jackson‘s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy with Number One Son Thomas who had inexplicably never seen any of the films before, and was captivated all over again by how good they are. Easily they set the bar for fantasy films. Here is a quick study of Sir Ian McKellan as Gandalf. It looks like the LOTR prequel “The Hobbit” might finally be in production in earnest.

Actually this is not Sir Ian’s first appearance in the SOTW. Some years ago I did this sketch of him from the film “Richard III”:

SWAMPED… and as I am leaving to an undisclosed location(s) on another of those USO trips on the 5th, the blogging might be a bit on the light side for a while…

• MAD- A 6 page movie parody!!! Woot!
• MAD Animated show- Back to work on some new episodes.
• Penthouse- Series of illustrations for an ongoing celebrity column
• Advertising job- series of caricature illustrations for a big corporation
• Workplace Poster- My usual monthly assignment

Speaking of workplace posters, here’s last month’s illustration. Click for a closer look:

The pencil sketch

Finished Artwork

I never met Jess Rubio, but as a live caricaturist and the owner of several theme park caricature operations I sure heard about him.

Rubio was the “face” of caricatures and art concessions at the Walt Disney theme parks. He started as a fill in portrait artist in 1957 at Disneyland, and a chance meeting with Walt Disney when Rubio came in early to set up his location started him on a road that led to his being the exclusive art concession operator in all the Disney theme parks in California and Florida. For about 40 years after, if there was ever consideration of a portrait or caricature operation in any of the Disney parks, Rubio was the guy who did it. Eventually some other operations were allowed in… but they are few and far between. My good buddy Keelan Parham and his company Caricature Connection have a location in Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and I know of a couple of other small locations there and in WDW’s Hollywood Studios and several in some of the shopping and resort areas, but essentially if Disney was going to do caricatures it was Rubio’s gig. Rubio also did other stuff in the parks like the balloons with Mickey ears.

A lot of live caricaturists in the 60s-80s got their start with Rubio, who personally trained most of his artists, so his stamp is on a lot of the styles of live caricature out there. For decades his artists did profile caricatures on clear acetate sheets using an overhead projector, so the crowd was able to easily watch the work being done on a screen. That and the person’s name in bubble letters became a defacto look of live caricatures for a long, long time because of Rubio’s influence. Easily over a million people have had their visits to Disney commemorated by a Rubio artist.

As a caricature concession owner, it was always a bit frustrating that Disney was never open to other concession companies having locations in their parks… particularly since the potential of such an operation is quite staggering. Disney has never been interested in a “Six Flags” style operation that was designed for maximum efficiency and profitability with multiple artists in a custom building designed for high volume. Their philosophy on art concessions has always been more of a street artist approach, often with only one or two artists set up in a single area with folding chairs and umbrellas… not designed for making big money but more for the charm and ambiance of it. They still keep things low key, and have no interest in a bigger concession company opening multiple locations in their parks. Rubio has always been the “Disney caricaturist” and I doubt their philosophy changes. He must have been content with that arrangement… basically exclusive rights to art concessions and the Disney parks and staying low key and somewhat transient. His operations would be open for a few years in one spot then close and maybe reappear later in another place.

Jess Rubio passed away at age 77 of “a sudden illness” last Friday. You can read a short article on him here and another here,

Q: I am a longtime fan of MAD Magazine and my favorite parts of each issue are the movie and TV parodies. I hope you’ll forgive me but I have several questions about that. I know you have been doing both types for a long time… which is your favorite to work on, a movie or a TV show, and why? Do you like doing parodies more of shows you love or hate? Finally, are we ever going to see MAD return to having at least one parody in every issue? They used to always have one movie and one TV show spoof in each issue, but in the last several years they have often had none. Why?

A: Great questions. I also loved the movie and TV parodies in MAD and that was always the thing I most wanted to do for them. When I first started drawing for them it seemed like ages before I got assigned one by the editors but actually I had only done three print jobs before I got my first parody, which was “Malcontent in the Muddle” (Malcolm in the Middle) in MAD #403. Since then I have done a total of 24 TV show parodies and 18 movie parodies. I am only counting actual parodies of films or shows, not mash-ups like “The Wizard of O” or “America’s Next Top Mobster” and a few others that really don’t fit the bill as a classic MAD parody.

Which is your favorite to work on, a movie or a TV show, and why?

I love doing them both and it’s close but I like doing movie parodies a little better than TV parodies. The main reason is the time involved in the research end of things. A movie is at the longest about 3 hours and self contained. You have seen and know all there is to know about a movie in that time. TV shows are different. They are often an ongoing storyline with continually evolving characters, and in order to get familiar enough with the source material I usually have to watch many hours of a show and sometimes consult friends who are fans of the program for insider info that only someone who has watched the majority of the episodes would get. It’s those kinds of details that make a TV show parody really effective for those who are fans of the shows… making fun of the little things. Plus if I really dislike the show I am stuck watching hours of something I don’t want to watch. If I don’t like a particular movie the pain is over in only a few hours… plus there is popcorn.

Do you like doing parodies more of shows you love or hate?

This might be the most asked question I get from MAD fans other than “Do you think Bill Gaines is spinning in his grave now that MAD takes advertising?” (BTW, the answer to that question is “No… Gaines was cremated.”) The answer is yes. Having some strong reaction to the source material gives me an interest in the work that fuels everything. If I love the show or film, making light of it is fun… if I hate it then I take evil delight in skewering it into oblivion. It’s indifference that is the hardest to get motivated by.

Are we ever going to see MAD return to having at least one parody in every issue? They used to always have one movie and one TV show spoof in each issue, but in the last several years they have often had none. Why?

I’m afraid that is a question for MAD‘s editorial staff. They decide what is in the magazine. Certainly in the last 5 years parodies have become not only less frequent but shorter… It used to be rare to see one that was less than 5 pages but now they are often only 4. I think in the case of movies it’s a timing and logistics issue… you can read this past post I wrote on the subject, but in a nutshell today’s films come and go from theaters so fast that they are half way to DVD before MAD can get a parody written, edited, drawn and in print. In the 60s, 70s, 80s and some of the 90′s movies would play for 9 months in theaters as they opened in big cities first and then gradually trickled down into small town America. Now they open simultaneously in New York City, NY and Pork Rind, Texas on 3,500 screens and even the most popular blockbusters are done in 6 weeks. Most don’t last a month. They are yesterday’s news by the time a MAD parody hits the stands. TV shows are less timely, and can run almost anytime of the year… why there are not as many as their used to be is a mystery to me. I doubt we will ever see a return to the opening and closing of an issue with a movie and TV parody.

The good news is I am right now working on a 6 page movie parody for MAD #507!

Thanks to Grant Jonen 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!

Some time ago I wrote about a documentary in the works about the great Will Elder, who’s work for MAD helped set the tone and style of humor the magazine would become famous for.

I recently got an e-mail from the film’s creator Gary VandenBerg telling me about a donation site they have put up in order to try and raise funds to finish the film and get it out to the public. If you are interested in helping out, you can visit this site for more details. They’ve got about $14,000 and change to go and 46 days to get there. Different donation levels get you different swag ranging from a copy of the DVD when it’s produced all the way up to an “Executive Producer” credit in the films opening title sequence.

A week or two ago I attended the annual meeting of my chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, which featured a bevy of guest speakers, panels and other great presentations. The featured speaker was Josh Cooley, who was co-sponsored by our chapter and the Kaneko art center. Josh is a story artist at Pixar who did a lot of work on “Cars”, “Ratatouille”, “UP” and the forthcoming “Cars 2″, and he did both a presentation of this work and conducted a workshop on “story art”… which is sort of like storyboarding but in Pixar’s case is a lot more central to the creation of the film. Josh is a great talent, an excellent speaker and a terrific guy.

After the weekend Josh and I exchanged emails and agreed to do a swap of original drawings (sucker!). Above is what I did for him, based on his gag idea. I got an email from him the other day saying he had received it, and that once he stops retching he’ll draw something for me in return. I am looking forward to getting an original Josh Cooley drawing in the mail whenever he has some down time from working on Oscar-winning blockbuster films (!!). Seriously, what an awesome place to work.

You have to love who you get a chance to meet in this profession!