Day one at Comic-Con? Uneventful. Actually for once the crush of humanity was not that horrific and it was relatively easy to walk about the exhibitor floor. I did a little of that, but mainly stuck by both the DC booth for my signing and the National Cartoonists Society booth where I did caricatures and had some MAD originals for sale. The NCS booth is located at booth spaces 1307 and 1309:

The NCS booth is pretty well done, IMO. Nice location, too. I’ll be there from 2:00 to about 3:30 today doing caricatures, sketches and selling those MAD pages. I’ll also be at the DC Comics booth from 4:00-5:00 PM signing and drawing. Unfortunately the folks at DC have decided they are only giving away free stuff early in the day and at the end of the day… they said it was because the stampede to grab freebies in the heavy part of the day is overwhelming. So, I don’t know if I will have free copies of MAD or not.

EDIT- just confirmed that free copies of MAD are a go for the DC signings.

Last night I attended the Captain Rochester party at the Palm Restaurant on J Street. Captain Rochester is part of an awareness project from a company called Rochester Electronics, a maker of semi-conductors. Apparently there is a real problem in the world of high tech with counterfeit semiconductors and components for electronics.

From the Captian Rochester website:

The goal at Rochester Electronics has been to raise awareness of the devastating implications of counterfeit and substandard components that make their way every day into products that affect our lives. Captain Rochester and his team of valiant allies constantly fight to defeat their treacherous counterfeiting enemies. Through his adventures, we can share – in an entertaining way – important information about counterfeiting with the semiconductor industry’s customers and original manufacturers, as well as with the general public.

Captain Rochester’s adventures have expanded since we introduced him in 2006 because the threat of counterfeit and substandard devices has risen significantly. Arrests and convictions have increased dramatically in the past year, however, as awareness in the industry as well as in law enforcement agencies and government agencies have expanded. Working together (with the help of the message Captain Rochester gives), we can outsmart the counterfeiters by promoting best purchasing practices and understanding the dangers!

Captain Rochester’s adventures will increase knowledge and appreciation of the importance of the quest for quality in the semiconductor industry.

As part of this program Rochester Electronics is producing a series of comic books done by Scott Shaw! and a series of trading cards done by some pretty notable artists (present company excluded). They debuted series one and two here with cards by the likes of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Jeff Keane, Sergio Aragonés, Steve Rude, Hy Eisman, Gene Colan, Al Jaffee, Peter Bagge and many more. Here’s my card (sorry for the bad scan):

You can get more information and order the comics, cards or collectible card sheets from the Captain Rochester website.

Tags: San Diego Comic-Con

Well, here I am in beautiful and sunny clammy and rainy San Diego for Comic-Con 2010. The weather is suppose to improve as soon as this afternoon, but it looks like I might get wet on the way to the convention center this morning. I’ll be blogging from the convention floor and you have my promise: No “BIFF!” “POW!” or other sound effects will be lazily used in any headlines or posts.

I’m not sure exactly why I ever go to comic book conventions. As I have written here before, MAD is sort of the red headed stepchild of comics… yes, it’s got plenty of comics and cartooning in it but it’s still a fringe sort of thing, especially today. Whenever I sit at a table at a comic book convention and, when asked what I do I reply “I draw for MAD Magazine”, I always get the same few replies:

“Wow, MAD!… That still being published?”

“I used to love MAD… haven’t read it in 10 years!”

And my personal favorite:

“My grandpa loves MAD! He’s dead now, but still…”

That’s an exaggeration… but not much. I do have a few folks who drop by and actually have recent copies of the magazine for me to sign for them… and many are young kids. MAD isn’t entirely lost from the younger generation. That’s what makes the upcoming Cartoon Network show so exciting. I hope it brings MAD to a whole new generation of fans.

I’ll be signing free copies of MAD at the DC Comics booth (#1915) from 2:00- 3:00 pm today.

A little later today I will probably know my schedule at the National Cartoonists Booth (#1307), which is where I will be doing all my caricature drawing and hawking MAD originals. I brought a limited number of them this year, but they are all comic-book related… pages from the parodies of “The Dark Knight Returns”, “X-Men 2″, “Spiderman 2″, “Superman Returns” and “Watchmen” as well as a few pages from “The Big Bang Theory” and “30 Rock”. Ridiculously exorbitant bargain basement prices.

Usually I completely avoid drawing reality TV “stars” as they don’t need more encouragement or even as mild an extension of their mostly undeserved 15 minutes of fame as my modest little blog provides. However since I had already stooped to drawing his therapy-bound kids and his fame-seeking horror of an ex-wife, I figured I might as well do the trifecta and draw the deplorable Jon Gosselin. This one is a little different, done with a fine tip pen.

One of the books that sees a lot of wear on my bookshelf is The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression by Gary Faigin. It’s a very comprehensive look into what happens to the face when certain emotions come into play, and shows how to draw someone displaying those emotions. That’s a pretty important skill when doing visual storytelling, and caricature artists can learn a lot from it as well.

The author will be conducting a five day (FIVE DAYS?!?!) workshop on the subject this upcoming December at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, WA. The workshop must give thorough and comprehensive an entirely new meaning, because you can read the book itself in an afternoon… but no question Mr. Faigin knows his stuff so The workshop is bound to be enlightening. If you are in the Seattle area it might be worth a look see.

Here’s the official announcement… it says you can register online but I didn’t see it listed yet:

UNDERSTANDING & MASTERING FACIAL EXPRESSION
Five-Day Workshop | Mon, December 6 – Fri, December 10, 2010

Teaching Artist: Gary Faigin

Author: The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression
Lecturer: Industrial Light & Magic and American Academy of Plastic Surgery
Consultant: Animation Production Capstone, Computer Science Dept, UW

Despite our familiarity with faces, a discrepancy can occur between transferring the facial expression one sees in real life into the representation of one. Gary Faigin, artist, author and acclaimed lecturer will address this phenomenon and other common problems in a five-day workshop at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. While countless workshops offer instruction in depicting the head, this workshop offers forensic experts, animators, cartoonists, plastic surgeons as well as those curious to learn about the mechanics of a smile, a unique and comprehensive opportunity to understand facial expression.

Through a series of lectures, demonstrations and one-on-one instruction, Faigin offers students thorough instruction on how to convincingly portray emotion. Working at their own station, students are provided with drawing materials, a plastic skull, modeling clay and a mirror, and begin the week by drawing their own face in relation to the skull underneath.

Students also gain an objective understanding of the face through a systematic exploration of the muscles that control expression. Working with modeling clay, students form important muscles of various expressions which are later positioned onto a plastic skull. Using this foundation, students are then able to use their own face as a model to draw front and side views that highlight the various muscles in action.

Working in conjunction with Faigin, students also learn how to depict the six categories of emotion (sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust and surprise) and progress to life drawing from an actor or model at the week’s close. Students also examine a variety of visual sources, including cartoons, master paintings and other artistic depictions of facial expression to inform their work.

At the end of the week, students leave with an increased understanding and command of facial expression, taking home their expression notebook as well as a completed clay-model muscular skull.

Register online at www.GageAcademy.org or call 206-323-GAGE (4243) or 1-800-880-3898

Well… vacation is over, I can tell you.

Actually the old drawing board is a little light when it comes to heavy duty projects. Just a few small and one long, ongoing one-

• iPad App- Art for another app for Ray Griggs, the developer of Bobble Rep. Should have this done today.
• Caricature/Character Design- This for a UK company for an advertising project. Awaiting feedback on a round of sketches.
• Workplace Poster- My usual monthly assignment for The Marlin Company
• WB Animation- between episodes right now for the upcoming MAD Show

That should keep me busy until the Comic Con starts in… only 3 days!!?!

Q: Why all the secrecy involving the MAD TV show and especially the magazine? I don’t see why you can’t at least say what movie [or TV show or other subject] you are working on for MAD… it’s not like they have any competition out there that might ‘scoop’ them is it? As for the animated TV show, when can we expect to hear some details??

A: Sorry if it seems like there is a Maxwell Smart “Cone of Silence” paranoia surrounding things I post about sometimes. It’s not just MAD you know… almost all the publications I do work with do not want me posting images I worked on for them before they are published. For that you can hardly blame them. They paid me to do the work and want to be the first to publish it. It isn’t like anyone is worried about it getting stolen somehow, or that they or I think the work is important or anything. It’s their privilege as the commissioners (??) of the work that they get to publish it first. In fact I just assume they want it that way and always wait until I get my tearsheets or I know for a fact the publication is out before I share any of the work I did online.

I think a large part of that is the viral and instantaneous nature of the internet. You have to be careful of what you say and who you say it to because one tiny post on some seemingly inconsequential little blog like this one and it can be all over the world in a matter of hours. Look what happened last November when I posted complaining about Apple’s rejection of Ray Grigg’s “Bobble Rep” iPhone app because my artwork was deemed “defamatory” to the 540 politicians I caricatured for the program. By the next day it was on Fox News, CNN.com and a host of other major news and technology websites and blogs. Who knows what will catch people’s eye and become viral.

As for MAD, they like to keep the issue under wraps until it is released. It’s less fun to get that copy in the mail with no surprises at all. They do release some sneak peeks to certain internet outlets, and that is also their privilege and they get to chose what and when that happens. Totally understandable. I got into a little hot water with MAD a few years back when I published some rough sketches for an article I was working on before it was published. In fact, as it turned out due to the timing the sketches were online before MAD even saw them. They were not happy about that, and I learned my lesson about blogging things before they are published… even just cryptic individual sketches with no explanation of their significance.

As for the TV show, they are very emphatic about not giving away any details about the content or direction of the show. There is a non-disclosure agreement and strict media policy. TV is certainly a cutthroat sort of business, and I can see where they want to keep it all under wraps and debut a show with as much fanfare and mystery as possible. That said, I understand that this Saturday’s “Mad about MAD!” panel discussion at the San Diego Comic Con will feature some kind of video presentation which I hope will reveal some of the details about the upcoming show. Rest assured the second there is any clearance to share any info you’ll read about it here, and if those video clips are available online (legally) after the panel I will link to them. Beyond that, all I can say is that some segments of the show will be based on some of my caricatures/character designs, which I am quite excited about seeing.

Thanks to Richard Griffin 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!