Splash of the MAD Watchmen parody- Art by me, words by Des Devlin

No one can say that comic book fans aren’t a passionate bunch. There has been so much commentary on DC Entertainment’s announcement of a new series of stories featuring the characters of the beloved Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon‘s classic Watchmen, that I can’t even begin to link to them. Here’s a story on it that made CNN. Much of it is outrage over messing with such an icon part of comic book history as Watchmen.

My take: calm down. They are just comics.

I actually don’t understand the venom. There is no “messing” going on with the original Watchmen. Not one single word, panel or page in that incredible piece of work is going to be changed, altered or otherwise manipulated. If so much as a single line was going to be altered in a “new” edition that would tie it in with any of the new stories, I’d be grabbing my pitchfork and torch.

But, it’s not. Watchmen remains Watchmen.

These are simply a series of new stories featuring these characters by different creative teams. That is hardly a new thing in comics. In fact, every 10 years or so everything gets a “reboot”, and new creative teams come and go in the meantime. Sometimes they do things I don’t like with the characters I love. My reaction is to stop buying those comics. Batman’s newest incarnation doesn’t change a word or page or panel of the Denny O’Neal/Neal Adams era Batman that I grew up with and consider the definitive version of the character. Before Watchmen are just new stories, and if you find they are great then enjoy them. If you think they are terrible, don’t buy them. It’s not like DC is redoing the last Watchmen book and making sure Ozymandias fired first.

What I find most ironic about the criticism leveled at DC for what some amount as sacrilege toward someone else’s creations is that Watchmen was based on a series of old and silly comic book characters in the first place… so Moore was “messing” with some else’s creations from the beginning. In fact, the best known of Moore’s work is mostly revamping and reinventing existing characters: Swamp Thing, Marvelman/Miracleman, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell. Great work, all of it, but not his characters.

Anyway, I intend to give Before Watchmen a chance. Just like any other comics I get, if they tell me an engaging story and stay true to the complex characters Moore wrote, I’ll enjoy them.

In the meantime, MAD has posted their parody of the original Watchmen comic on The Idiotical. Great stuff from Des Devlin, Glean Fabry and John Higgins, with an exclusive cover from Dave Gibbons. Well worth the read:

I came across this recently posted unsolicited YouTube review of my book today by Brooklyn caricaturist Elgin “Subway Surfer” Bolling. He has some nice things to say about it. It’s one thing to get positive reviews from general readers, but it’s particularly gratifying to hear from well-established professional caricaturists that, despite long experience doing caricature, they got something from the book as well. Thanks, Elgin!

As always, you can order a copy of The Mad Art of Caricature! here.

MAD debuted 60 years ago in 1952. It’s success, first as a comic book and then as a magazine (or “slick” as the vernacular of the day went) caused the spawning of imitators… MANY imitators. The longest running of them all was Cracked magazine, which lasted almost 50 years (1958-2007), but the list of less long-lived MAD clones was much longer. Here’s a few off the top of my head:

• Sick
• Crazy
• Plop!
• Nuts!
• Not Brand Eccch!
• Eh!
• Madhouse
• From Here to Insanity

An upcoming book (to be released in April) from Fantagraphics, The Sincerest Form of Parody, reprints some of the material from the early imitators of the MAD comic book (as opposed to the magazine format). Written by John Benson with an intro by Jay Lynch.

From the book’s desription:

When MAD became a surprise hit as a comic book in 1953 (after the early issues lost money!) other comics publishers were quick to jump onto the bandwagon, eventually bringing out a dozen imitations with titles like FLIP, WHACK, NUTS, CRAZY, WILD, RIOT, EH, UNSANE, BUGHOUSE, and GET LOST. The Sincerest Form of Parody collects the best and the funniest material from these comics, including parodies of movies (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, From Here To Eternity), TV shows (What’s My Line, The Late Show), comic strips (Little Orphan Annie, Rex Morgan), novels (I, the Jury), plays (Come Back, Little Sheba), advertisements (Rheingold Beer, Charles Atlas), classic literature (“The Lady or the Tiger”), and history (Pancho Villa). Some didn’t even try for parody, but instead published odd, goofy, off-the-wall stories.

These earnest copiers of MAD realized that Will Elder’s cluttered “chicken fat” art was a good part of MAD’s success, and these pages are densely packed with all sorts of outlandish and bizarre gags that make for hours of amusing reading. The “parody comics” are uniquely “’50s,” catching the popular culture zeitgeist through a dual lens: not only reflecting fifties culture through parody but also being themselves typical examples of that culture (in a way that Harvey Kurtzman’s MAD was not).

This unprecedented volume collects over 30 of the best of these crazy, undisciplined stories, all reprinted from the original comics in full color. Editor John Benson (who wrote the annotations for the first complete MAD reprints, and interviewed MAD editor Harvey Kurtzman in depth several times over the years) also provides expert, profusely illustrated commentary and background, including comparisons of how different companies parodied the same subject.

Artists represented include Jack Davis, Will Elder, Norman Maurer, Carl Hubbell, William Overgard, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Bill Everett, Al Hartley, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Hy Fleischman, Jay Disbrow, Howard Nostrand, and Bob Powell.

Casual comics readers are probably familiar with the later satirical magazines that continued to be published in the ’60s and ’70s, such as Cracked and Sick, but the comics collected in this volume were imitations of the MAD comic book, not the magazine, and virtually unknown among all but the most die-hard collectors. For the first time, Fantagraphics is collecting the best of these comics in a single, outrageously funny volume. 208 full-color illustrations

I obviously haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t comment on the book itself. However, as these 1950′s comics are extremely rare this is likely one of the only places one can find this content. I’m especially interested in John Benson’s commentary about the comics.

Damn… gotta find another space on the bookshelf.

I had the pleasure of being a guest on the excellent comics podcast Tall Tale Radio with Tom Racine. The show is up on the TTR website now. Tom and I talk about the NCS, the new online comics divisional award, the MAD, MAD, SCAD weekend I attended back in November, my book and a few other stories. Check it out here!

My signed/numbered limited edition print “Secret Agent Man” has sold out completely, so that’s that. I have deleted the high resolution color file, and the original inked artwork was sold months ago, so the 250 numbered prints out there in the hands of the rubes lucky folks who purchased them are all that there will ever be. Thanks to everybody who bought one, and to those who helped spread the word about it!

This worked out pretty well, although I think I may do a smaller number or prints next time. There definitely will be a next time. For San Diego Comic Con 2012 I will have another limited edition print in a similar vein but with different subject matter, which while there I will sell for cheap with the purchase of a copy of The Mad Art of Caricature!, and separately as well for an inflated, outrageous price. Likely I will have some left over again and they will get offered for sale here. Some of you who are not my mom might even buy one!

Team Cul de Sac is the brainchild of Chris Sparks, who has worked tirelessly to organize this fundraising program for Parkinson’s research. It’s a part of TeamFox, the Michael J Fox Foundation’s fundraising arm, which in the last year alone raised almost 4 million dollars for research. The fundraiser revolves around the brilliant comic strip Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson, an incredibly talented cartoonist who happens to have Parkinson’s. Oh, and he just won the Reuben for “Cartoonist of the Year” from the National Cartoonists Society last May.

Chris and Team Cul de Sac invited professional cartoonists, illustrators, artists and animators to donate original art made especially for a book, published by Andrews & McMeel, about Parkinson’s awareness, and the response was pretty outstanding. You will find the work of some of the biggest names in cartooning in those pages. Part of the profits from the direct sales of the book will benefit the Michael J Fox Foundation, and the original art will be auctioned as part of the fundraiser with all of auction money going to MJFF.

Chris and his company, Sparking Design, just announced that the Team Cul de Sac book is now available for pre-order directly from the publisher. You can order a “Regular Edition” copy, signed by Chris, for $35.50, and a limited edition of 150 “Author Signed and Numbered” copy signed by Chris for $65.50, both prices include shipping AND the Regular Edition includes a $5 donation to the afore mentioned Michael J. Fox Foundation, while the Author Signed and Numbered version includes a $20 donation to same. No word if copies signed by Richard will be available. By the way, Richard recently went on a hiatus from his strip to receive and recover from treatment for Parkinson’s… this book is needed now more than ever. The book is set to be released June 5th, 2012.

Incidentally, the book will also be available on Amazon, but only buying directly from the publisher will result in a donations to the MJFF. Amazon doesn’t really need your money, but Parkinson’s research does—so follow this link to pre-order.

Here is my meager contribution to the book:

The internet is abuzz with righteous indignation over the proposed “anti-piracy” legislation currently under consideration by congress, namely the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). I won’t bother to describe the bills—if you don’t know about them by now then welcome to your first time on the internet!

As a creative professional, I hate online piracy and copyright infringement, but I am not willing to kill the patient to cure the disease. These bills are going to be largely ineffective at best, and at worst very damaging to legitimate websites because they allow too much room for abuse. Internet piracy IS a huge problem, and it would be nice if something real could be done about it, but these bills are not the answer. I could go on, but Neil Gaiman and company say it better here than I could:

January 17, 2012

An open letter to Washington from Artists and Creators

We, the undersigned, are musicians, actors, directors, authors, and producers. We make our livelihoods with the artistic works we create. We are also Internet users.

We are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

As creative professionals, we experience copyright infringement on a very personal level. Commercial piracy is deeply unfair and pervasive leaks of unreleased films and music regularly interfere with the integrity of our creations. We are grateful for the measures policymakers have enacted to protect our works.

We, along with the rest of society, have benefited immensely from a free and open Internet. It allows us to connect with our fans and reach new audiences. Using social media services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we can communicate directly with millions of fans and interact with them in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

We fear that the broad new enforcement powers provided under SOPA and PIPA could be easily abused against legitimate services like those upon which we depend. These bills would allow entire websites to be blocked without due process, causing collateral damage to the legitimate users of the same services – artists and creators like us who would be censored as a result.

We are deeply concerned that PIPA and SOPA’s impact on piracy will be negligible compared to the potential damage that would be caused to legitimate Internet services. Online piracy is harmful and it needs to be addressed, but not at the expense of censoring creativity, stifling innovation or preventing the creation of new, lawful digital distribution methods.

We urge Congress to exercise extreme caution and ensure that the free and open Internet, upon which so many artists rely to promote and distribute their work, does not become collateral damage in the process.

Respectfully,

Aziz Ansari

Kevin Devine, Musician

Barry Eisler, Author

Neil Gaiman, Author

Lloyd Kaufman, Filmmaker

Zoë Keating, Musician

The Lonely Island

Daniel Lorca, Musician (Nada Surf)

Erin McKeown, Musician

Benjamin Goldwasser, MGMT

Andrew VanWyngarden, MGMT

Samantha Murphy, Musician

OK Go

Amanda Palmer, Musician (The Dresden Dolls)

Quiet Company

Trent Reznor

Adam Savage, Special Effects Artist (MythBusters)

Hank Shocklee, Music Producer (Public Enemy, The Bomb Squad)

Johnny Stimson, Musician

Anybody wanting to learn how to earn a living in comics in the 21st century would be well served to attend this if they can:

Comics Seminar to be Held in Las Vegas February 25th & 26th

How to make money with comics

Chad Carpenter, the cartoonist behind the popular newspaper comic strip Tundra, and Bill Kellogg, Tundra’s marketing director who has managed to get Tundra in over 500 newspapers in less than six years, are hosting a seminar in Las Vegas on how to make money with comics. They hosted this seminar for the first time just over a year ago and it went over extremely well. Now, due to popular request, and the fact that they are from Alaska and it gets really cold there in February, they are going to do it again.

This is a “must-attend” event for anyone who would like to learn how to make more money with comics. The seminar takes place in Las Vegas this February 25th & 26th at the Tuscany Hotel & Casino and is open to amateur and syndicated cartoonists alike. There will be fourteen speakers over two days, sharing their knowledge on how to make money in different areas of cartooning. Topics include: How to get syndicated, self-syndicating, web comics, producing & marketing products, licensing, animation, building a Facebook following, and much more. There will be social get-togethers each night too with free beer, wine and snacks so attendees will have plenty of time to talk one-on-one with the speakers and other guests.

This Years’ speakers are:

• Chad Carpenter & Bill Kellogg – (Tundra Comics)
• Jack Newcombe – (President of Creator’s Syndicate)
• Tom Gammill – (The Simpsons)
• Mell Lazarus – (Momma and Miss Peach)
• Rob Tornoe – (Editorial and Sports cartoonist. Editor and Publisher of Punchline magazine)
• Adrian Raeside (The Other Coast, and writer for children’s shows such as Kid vs. Kat)
• Mark Parisi & Lynn Reznik – (Off the Mark)
• Mason Mastroianni – (B.C. Cartoonist and Emmy Award winning animator)
• Mick Mastroianni – (Writer for B.C., Wizard of Id and Dogs of C Kennel)
• John Read – (Publisher of Stay Tooned magazine)
• Daniele Corsetto – (Girls With Slingshots – web comic)
• Debbra Abeyta – (Newspaper pagination with Vertis)

The cost for the seminar is $375 and it is open to cartoonists and aspiring cartoonists of all ages. More information is available by going to the Tundra Comics web site at www.tundracomics.com and clicking the Las Vegas link.

For questions or more information, please contact Bill Kellogg at 907-441-6882 or bill@tundracomics.com.

I’ve gotten several very constructive responses about the NCS’s new Online Comic Strip Division award, with some great suggestions that we will certainly look at incorporating into next year’s awards. Thanks to all those who both understand the challenge of putting this together and took the time to offer real thoughts and suggestions.

One thing that was pointed out to us needs immediate correction. The original requirements for eleigibilty for the division included this:

5. Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from the strip/property

Has been amended to:

5. Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from cartooning in order to adhere to the NCS criteria that creators under consideration must be either full members or eligible for full membership

This originally was poorly worded. As with all other divisions, you do not need to make the majority of your income from one single property or strip, but from cartooning in general. So, if you are an animator, illustrator, comic book artist or otherwise already earn a living as a cartoonist, and you also do a web-comic but it isn’t your main source of income, you still qualify for professional NCS membership, which is all the NCS rules require for your work to be considered eligible.

Sorry about the confusion, but that really was not a fair requirement. It wasn’t really our intention, either, so I am not sure how the wording ended up that way. Anyway… amended.

Do you wish your school or local public library carried The Mad Art of Caricature!? So do I! Well, now they can. The Mad Art of Caricature! is officially being distributed for K-12 school libraries through Follett Library Resources and for U.S. Public libraries through their sister company, Book Wholesalers, Inc.

Unfortunately no library will have a book on their shelves they don’t know exists. So, how can you go about getting them to stock a copy? Just ask one of the librarians about getting one through the appropriate resource above. Libraries won’t stock self-published books unless they have a national distributor, and now we do! You can even reference the book’s ISBN number: 9780983576709.

My only regret about this is that libraries no longer have that glued on pocket with the library card in the back, so you could see who has checked out the book before you did. Technological progress takes the fun out of everything.