Season two of MAD on the Cartoon Network will debut this Monday, Aug 29th. at 8:30/7:30 Central Time. According to the show’s website, the first episode will feature two segments I worked on: “Konan the Kardashian” and “Capt. America’s Got Talent”… I’ll leave it to your imaginations to figure out what those will be about.

I will post some of the art I did for the segments on Tuesday.

This is the last of the art I did for Season One of the animated MAD show on the Cartoon Network.  these appeared on the episode that aired this week in a segment called “Glee-VR”, and the subjects are Jared Padelecki and Jensen Ackles from the TV show Supernatural. I already have one episode for Season Two “in the can” as they say in the business.

I am totally swamped right now, but here’s a recent small project I did that just saw print. This is a spot illustration that appears in the current issue of UTNE Reader (July-Aug 2011). It depicts viral internet rapper “Ms. Peachez” being looked upon with contempt and disbelief by Snoop Doggy-Dogg and Jay Z for her stereotyped, “Southern hip-hop” styling. BTW, Ms. Peachez is actually Mr. Nelson Boyd. It’s hard to tell if the Peachez videos are supposed to be parodies or celebrations of Southern culture. I’m going with the former, since the video the illustration is referencing “Fry that Chicken” is so over-the-top with racial and cultural stereotypes it reminds me of old 19th century black-face skits:

As promised, here is some of the character design work I did on last night’s episode of MAD on the Cartoon Network. The segment was called “The Big Fang Theory” and was a mash-up of Twilight and The Big Bang Theory TV show. It is pretty hard to recognize this art in what ended up on the finished segment… they obviously went in a different direction and only used my designs very loosely, although I did like the more graphic look they came up with:

I’ve been meaning to post this link for a few days but it’s been crazy around here.

In 2009 I was a guest speaker at the Australian Cartoonists Association’s Stanley Awards in Syndey. When there I met a young illustrator by the name of Anton Emdin. Anton was nominated for a “Stanley” for illustration, which he quire deservedly won. Anton did work for the Aussie MAD Magazine, so we were kindred spirits. Since then Anton has won a few other Stanley awards, and he’s been nominated for several divisional awards by the National Cartoonists Society, including two this year. He’s also had several pieces in the U.S. MAD. He is a tremendous illustrator and cartoonist.

He’s also, apparently, a generous teacher. He’s put out a tutorial on his blog on inking that is an absolute must-see for the novice and pro alike. I learned more than a few things, that’s for certain. I’ve linked to the video on “warming up” above but be sure and visit Anton’s blog for the full experience including another video.

The artwork for the cover of the new issue of UTNE Reader:

Click for a closer look…

The job was a caricature of Kim Kardashian representing our 24/7 narcissistic society. The art director wanted me to convey how even a casual stroll shopping for someone like her becomes a staged event, and how the public seem to be willing sheep in the process. Here is the final pencil sketch (done on a mock layout with dummy text) and final color art:

Click for a closer look…

Click for a closer look…

I was the folks at UTNE’s choice to leave out any shadows on the dress and have it be a flat pattern. Their call. It does make Kim’s figure stand out more, but it looks a little out of place as well. I adjusted the values on the left side so the text popped better, which made for a nice “atmospheric perspective” effect while still leaving the large crowd intact.

RG Entertainment and director Ray Griggs, who produced the film “I Want Your Money” (which I did some animation design work for) want your money. More accurately, they want your money in exchange for one of these limited edition maquettes made based on my design:

I haven’t seen the actual statue yet, but the pictures look pretty good, I can definitely see my artwork in there. Here’s another angle:

The maquette is hand painted and mounted on an actual 35MM film reel of the movie. Limited to only 250 pieces at $149.99.

The brouhaha from Nov. 2008 concerning Apple’s rejection of the iPhone app “Bobble Rep” due to the heinous nature of my caricatures has long died down, but the app needed updating now that the 112th congress has convened. Thus, I had to do small disembodied caricatures of the new members of congress for the app’s bobblehead images… all 108 of them!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Steve Chabot- OH                              Daniel Coats- IN

Sean Duffy- WI                              Alan Nunnelee- MS

James Renacci- OH                              Frederica Wilson- FL

The new and improved Bobble Rep app will be available in the iTunes App Store soon… I’ll let you know when you can go there and spend $.99 of your hard earned dough on it.

Scrippsnetworks © 2011 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

The folks at the Food Network gave me the okay to share this piece I did for them of FN stars Rachel Ray and Guy Fieri. To be honest I am not 100% sure what the purpose of it was, but I know it was not for print or broadcast. I believe it was supposed to be for some internal promo or something similar. The assignment was to do a simple caricature of Rachel and Guy in a “Dancing with the Stars” pose with a simple background.

Desperately trying to finish a six page MAD parody and a magazine cover illustration… stop distracting me.