I was the subject of a short piece on the weekend edition of the FOX9 newscast here in the Twins Cities:

It was flattering to be contacted by the station and have them ask if I’d do this. It’s too bad that MAD hadn’t announced it’s switch to bimonthly before they did the final editing. It’s also unfortunate that my braces make it sound like I have a worse lisp than The Music Man’s Winthrop Paroo.

Some of the quotes I give seem odd because the question the reporter asked me doesn’t proceed them. For example, the last comment I make about getting all my kids graduated and out of the house was in answer to the question “are you ever going to grow up?” to which my full response was “I hope not. If I can get all my kids out of the house and graduated without growing up I should be safe.”

Good news! Today MAD editor John Ficarra sent out an announcement to all MAD contributors to say that DC Comics would be increasing the frequency of MAD from quarterly to bimonthly, stating with issue #504. The news stand date of MAD #504 is June 15th, so we should see MAD #505 on August 15th or so, and then an issue every other month after that.

That is great news on several fronts. First, it’s two more issues of MADness every year, but as John points out in his letter it gives MAD the opportunity to do more topical and timely material. Quarterly publication really limited what MAD could jump on concerning matters of the moment. Movie parodies especially were tough because if the timing of an issue was not just right, it was pointless to do a parody of a film that would long be out of the spotlight by the time the parody hit the stands. Bimonthly still  isn’t the same as monthly, but it beats quarterly by 50%! (For all you math geniuses out there who might dispute that figure: Quarterly= 4 issues/year, Bimonthly= 6 issue/year, going from 4 to 6 issues a year is an increase of 2 issues a year, or 50% of current quarterly output.)

No new news on the revamping of the MAD website or other media projects, but progress is still being made in those areas I am told.

**I had to remove my original post on this for a while as DC did not mean it disseminated until they made their own announcement, but after they realized the cat was out of the bag they said keeping it private was “moot”, thus the replaced post… sorry about the comments that got deleted as a result.

Look for an official announcement from DC Comics and MAD Magazine soon!

Legendary war cartoonist Bill Mauldin is being honored with a stamp from the United State Postal Service. The stamp gets released sometime this month. Mauldin’s cartoons, often featuring his characters Willie and Joe, were honest and supportive of the enlisted soldiers defending the country during World War II while making fun of the brass, which endeared him to millions of “regular guys”. They told real stories of the front lines and the difficulties our soldiers endured using humor, which comforted both the G.I.’s and the people back home who loved them.

I only met Mauldin once, at my first National Cartoonists Society Reubens in 1999 in San Antonio. By then he was ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease and in declining health, and he was difficult to talk to. It was obvious how much he was revered and loved by the cartoonists there, which was very moving when witnessed firsthand. I think it would have been something to have met him before his health problems robbed him of much of his identity. He passed away in 2003.

Congratulations to Bill Mauldin for the well deserved honor, and I am looking forward to getting one of these stamps.

David Paccia is the author of the interesting blog “David-Wasting-Paper“, which features interviews with cartoonists in the form of a series of survey questions. There has been a great run of terrific cartoonists interviewed on David’s site, but I’m afraid that run has come to an end. Yes, David has finally scraped the bottom of the barrel and has stooped to interviewing me for his blog. Looks like he redeems himself next with my friend Rick Stomowski (Soup 2 Nutz), but in the meantime he wears the yoke of shame.

However, do not let that dissuade you from visiting David’s Wasting Paper and reading the other 88 interviews worth reading!

The eternal fanboy question. Turns out (at least for now) in the context of capitalism Batman owns Superman.

Just days after the record shattering sale of Action Comics #1 for $1,000,000.00, a private collector has purchased a copy of Detective Comics #27, featuring the first appearance of “The Bat-Man”, for $1,075,500 at a Dallas auction through Heritage Auction Galleries.

According to the story, the seller originally bought the copy in the 1960’s for $100. Holy Compound Interest, Batman! Assuming he bought it in 1969, that’s about a 25.4% annal return on that investment over 41 years. Thomas Wayne would have been proud!

Cover art by Bill Janocha

I received a pleasant surprise in my mailbox yesterday… the newest issue of Stay Tooned! Magazine in all it’s hot-off-the-press glory. I also got a lot of pre-approved credit card offers, but they were considerably less thrilling. Still, anything addressed to me (and I count “Current Resident” as being addressed to me) in the mailbox in the middle of a Minnesota winter is something. When your mail is delivered by dogsled even the junk mail is welcome.

Stay Tooned! is far from junk mail, though… that is genuine “glad to see it” mail.

Publisher John Read continues his string of excellence with another great issue, featuring among other things:

• Profiles:
  • Jack and Carol Bender (Alley Oop)
  • Roz Chast (Gag Cartoonist- The New Yorker)
  • Jeff Koterba (Editorial Cartoonist)
  • Joe Bluhm (Caricaturist, animator, illustrator)
  • Justin Thompson (Mythtickle)
  • Mort Walker (duh… Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois)
• “Honey, I wanna Be a Cartoonist” by John Hambrock (The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee)
• “NCS Cartoonists USO Trip to the Middle East” by Bruce Higdon (Punderstatements)
• “Reflections of a Gag Writer” by Don Hagist (duh… Gag Writer)
• Regular contributions from R.C. Harvey, Scott Nickel and yours truly

It was particularly cool to see my buddy, the mega-talented Joe Bluhm, profiled in this issue.

As usual the magazine is a great read from cover to cover. I have been singing the praises of Stay Tooned! since it’s first issue and for good reason. John’s efforts are herculean and the results are really top notch. If you are either in the cartooning field, aspire to it or are just a fan and you do NOT have a subscription to Stay Tooned!, you are doing yourself a major disservice. If you are thinking “Oh, I can just go there and buy a back issue whenever I want” then think again… the entire runs of issues 1 thru 4 are SOLD OUT. Gone, vamoosed, poof. Go immediately to their website and subscribe so you do not miss out on another issue. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200 (although that would be nice).