I had another short article about myself in yet another local suburban newspaper, this time the Sun Current:

Burnsville cartoonist goes MAD – and beyond

This one has quotes from MAD art director Sam Viviano and The Lovely Anna! And they didn’t even slam me! The article should have been in the Friday print edition.

So, why the local news interest? It’s because of the recent press releases sent out by The Cartoonists Studio website, which had it’s “hard” opening recently and as one of the cartoonists in their collective I was part of that press release.

… that for once I didn’t bring any work along with me on vacation?

I lied a little.

MAD and other magazines subscriptions on the iPad are still a long way off…

Apple’s recent announcement of a subscription service within their App store seems like a step in the right direction towards the digital delivery of magazines and newspapers on iPad or similar devices, but as many are pointing out their business model is unworkable.

Back when the iPad came out, I wrote this post about how I saw the future of magazines and newspapers being tied to tablet devices like the iPad and it’s successors. The portability, form factor and ease of delivery of content solved most if not all of the inconveniences of switching from printed form to digital for the consumption of magazine and periodical content. The only holdup was a lack of an iMag Store, where tablet owners could go to get subscriptions to their favorite magazines, or browse for ones they might want to buy single issues of or subscribe to. There is still no such store, but Apple has finally decided to allow publishers to sell digital subscriptions through their apps. The caveats are that Apple gets 30% of all subscription revenues, that any subscription deals offered outside the app are matched or beaten by offers inside the app (no offering cheaper prices outside and cutting into Apple’s share), no mandatory acquiring of reader’s name, e-mail address or zipcode (advertising data) and no links in their content to outside places to buy stuff (i.e. no clickable ads to stuff not under Apple’s 30% umbrella).

Needless to say, publishers are not pleased. So far only Rubert Murdock and The Daily are on board. I don’t see anyone else joining the club.

The 30% arrangement is impossible. Some may argue that it’s no different than the overhead of real newsstand, but it is a lot different overall. Selling single issues on the news stand, which is priced at top dollar is meant only as an impulse buy to the browser, traveler or person looking for something to read while waiting for a meeting. Magazines don’t make money from single issue newsstand sales, even at those exorbitant prices. Cheap subscriptions and the ad revenues that come from a definable reader base are what magazines have been making their money from for decades. Apple’s business model makes that impossible.

There is a digital magazine subscription model that seems to be working. Zinio had been around for a decade and has a business model based on accommodating the needs of publishers, not dictating they conform to a computer company’s idea of how the publishing business should work. Zinio has had modest but very measurable success using their model. Right now Zinio has an app on the iPad, but that is likely doomed under Apple’s new subscription service.

Apple’s iPad has a big headstart on the tablet market as it was first to the scene and no one can argue that Apple does gadgets better than anyone. However tablet devices are going to be a lot more than portable movie machines and web browsers. They will be the way people carry their entertainment content around with them, and get it delivered to them, in the near future. Print media may be floundering but the desire for the content they provide is not… merely the way that content is delivered. Apple’s draconian demands on content providers like their latest subscription service and their refusal to allow Flash on their device browsers is going to be their downfall. If Google or some other company comes up with a digital newsstand allowing publishers/media to provide digital subscriptions to their magazines, newspapers, TV shows and the like in an iTunes Store type place, and allows the providers of the content a way to cash in on their wares, I think people will abandon the Apple device platform and follow the content. The “halo” effect of wanting to pair a Mac with an Apple device is already disappearing, with the devics themselves providing the gateway to the internet and content.

Need further proof this is or might be happening? The Richmond household is as Apple supportive as they get. We have under our roof 3 iMacs, 3 Macbooks, 1 MacBook Pro, 2 Apple TVs, 4 iPhones, 3 iPads and I lost count how many iPods. Steve Jobs should personally come to my house and make us dinner. Yet, when the time comes to consider a new tablet, I am going to start with anything that ISN’T the iPad and go from there. That should tell you something.

Since I am on vacation (and for once didn’t bring any work with me so no scanner or Cintiq)  this installment of “Sketch o’the Week” was drawn on the iPad using Sketchbook Pro. Subject: Liam Neeson. Drawn with my finger as I have none of those weird styluses with the marshmallow ends. Verdict: meh. Give me a pencil anyday.

This is my cover illustration for Reason magazine’s March 2011 issue featuring California’s new (well, technically his third term but his last two were from 1975-1983) Jerry Brown. The above is the original cover with the state labels but the magazine’s editors decide we needed to drop the labels for the printed version. The article it was accompanying was about how California was separating itself from the surrounding west states politically.

Here are some of the rough concept pencils for the job… all variations on the same basic scene which was agreed on earlier:

The folks at Reason were fun to work with.

Photo by John Gessner: ThisWeek Newspapers

This Week Newspapers, a suburban weekly around these parts, must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel for feature articles because they published a story on me last week which includes the most awkward picture of me ever (see above)… and that’s saying something. Clearly the bat-stuff in my studio intrigued the author. I refused to put on the suit for him but I did throw a couple of batarangs around to demonstrate my mad batarang skilz.

By way of clarification (should you be sufficiently bored today to follow the link and read the article), it is not a foregone conclusion I will be winning the election I am nominated for office for as author of the article declares… although I am running unopposed if there was ever a chance for Alfred E. Neuman to get voted into an office as the lesser of two evils, this might be it.

Q: I’ve read your answer to the question “do you do any writing for MAD?” (you add background gags and jokes, but don’t write the dialogue, yes?), but who does the writing for MAD? How does that work?

A: Having never written anything per se for MAD, I don’t know firsthand about the writing process for them. I have learned a fair amount about it from writers who I have corresponded with, however. Several MAD writers occasionally drop by the MAD Blog just to make sure I am not talking smack about them, so if I have any of this wrong maybe they can set us straight or add to the description.

Most of the articles and features in MAD, like the artwork, are created by freelancers. Unlike the artists, who get assigned to do the art for an already written and edited article, most writers submit ideas for articles to the MAD editorial staff and don’t get paid for anything unless they article is “picked up” and they are paid to complete it. Here is how I understand how writing a typical MAD article works:

1. A freelance writer submits one or several concepts for an article to the editors at MAD. This is true even of the writers who are regular contributors to the magazine. Sometimes what they submit are fully written features but often they are outlines or detailed descriptions of an idea for the editors to consider, called a “pitch”. From what I understand, the more familiar the editorial staff is with the writer (i.e. those who have done a lot of writing for MAD in the past), the less detailed and complete the submitted idea needs to be.
2. The editors consider submitted ideas. Those they like they agree to buy from the writer. They contact the writer and have them complete the article. MAD has a standard page rate for writing that is somewhere between $1.00 and $1,000,000.00 per page (likely more toward the $1.00 end of that scale, but they won’t say).
3. The writer submits the first draft script to the editors, who then edit it. The editorial staff takes a very active role in the production of all articles. They will consider, discuss and debate the effectiveness of the gags and readability of the article as a whole. Like the art direction, they will ask for changes to be made, cut some of the content, rearrange things… whatever they feel makes the article stronger, more impactful or (hopefully) funnier. The writer might be asked to refine the edited script, or the edited version might be ready for art.
4. Once the article is done, the editors assign a freelance artist to do the illustrations.

Most articles in MAD have a credit on the first page for writer and artist. MAD has a group of freelance writers they use regularly like Dick DeBartolo, Arnie Kogen, Desmond Devlin, Jacob Lambert, Barry Liebmann, Jeff Kruse and many others. The editorial staff at MAD also write articles, so anything you see in the magazine without a writer credit was done by the staff. There are also some freelancers who both write and draw their contributions like John Caldwell, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, Peter Kuper and many of the comic strip and short one page article creators.

The one exception to the above process are movie and TV show parodies. Writers do not submit ideas for those. The editorial staff decides on which shows or movies they want to parody, and then assign a freelance writer to do the script. Most artists like myself just get assignments. We seldom if ever submit ideas for consideration.

I can tell you this if you or anyone reading is thinking about submitting an idea to MAD for an article… don’t submit an idea for one of their current or classic features. They don’t want or need any “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions”, “Spy vs. Spy” ideas, etc. etc. or TV or movie satires. Come up with something new and original… they are always looking for that kind of material.

Thanks to Evan 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 your questions and I’ll try and answer them here!

I am leaving behind the frigid tundra of Minnesota for the sun and surf of Maui for a week with The Lovely Anna. I plan to get my fill of ahi sashimi, mai tais and sun. I might even blog.

Kinda busy right now… here’s a couple of recent jobs:

Penthouse spot illustration for Dave Navarro column:

Click for a closer look…

Workplace poster illustration- pencils, inks and final:

Click for a closer look…

Click for a closer look…

Click for a closer look…

On news stands on Feb 16th and in comic book shops today:

MAD # 508 (April 2011)

• Cover (Mark Fredrickson)
• The Fundalini Pages (Michael Gallagher, Jeffery Ford, Ward Sutton, Chris Houghton, Scott Nickel, Jason Yungbluth, Jeff Kruse, Hermann Mejia, Rick Tulka, Sam Viviano, Glen LeLievre, Todd Clark, Charles Akins, Garth Gerhart, Leonardo Rodriguez, Bob Staake)
• SAD MEN (Arnie Kogen, Tom Richmond)
• What We Really Learned from WikiLeaks (Barry Liebmann, Paul Coker)
• MAD’s Moronic Outtakes from Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Uncredited)
• A MAD Look At Murder (Sergio Aragonés, Tom Luth)
• Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper)
• MAD Exclusive Excerpt: Justin Bieber’s Autobiography (Desmond Devlin, Scott Bricher)
• The MAD Vault -MAD #326, March 1994 (Paul Coker, Desmond Devlin)
• Wild, Unfounded Rumors Surrounding the Xbox Kinect (John Caldwell)
• The Strip Club (Joey Alison Sayers, Scott Nickel, Christopher Baldwin, Dan Long, Jacob Lambert, Jason Yungbluth,  Douglas Paszkiewicz)
• Undercover Boob (Dick DeBartolo, Tom Bunk)
• 7 Periods Closer to Death (Ted Rall)
• How Barack Obama Stacks Up Against the Other 42 U.S. Presidents (Jeff Kruse)
• ChiaBieberPet (Scott Maiko, Liz Lomax, Tim Shamey)
• MAD Fold-In (Al Jaffee)
• Drawn Out Dramas (Sergio Aragonés)

It’s great to see the appearance of some new faces in MAD. Recently Aussie MAD cartoonist Anton Emdin has had a few great pieces in the U.S. edition. This issue contains a piece by the winner of the 2008 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, the talented Chris Houghton! Congrats, Chris! I expect to see your work in future issues as well as a lot of other places.

My contribution this issue might be my favorite project I’ve ever done for MAD… it’s certainly in the top three. Just a great combination of a very funny script, great faces and characters, a fun era to capture the look of and also a really good show that I ended up getting hooked on in the process. It is a six page parody of the TV show “MAD MEN” written by Arnie Kogen, look for a sneak peek at that sometime soon.

What are you waiting for, clod?!? Go out and buy a fershlugginer copy already!