After what only seems like a forever filled with the usual partisan ugliness associated with a U.S. presidential election, today has finally arrived and by tomorrow morning we will know who will lead the United States for the next four years…

…or will we?

The photo above is of the famous gaffe in the November 3rd, 1948 issue of the Chicago Tribune, where they jumped the gun and declared Thomas E. Dewey the winner of the election over Harry S. Truman. It’s always been a dilemma for printed periodicals to decide at what point they should “call” an election and therefore get the story to press as soon as possible.

Over on his excellent blog “News From ME“, Mark Evanier writes that last week cartoonist Garry Trudeau had already drawn his “Doonesbury” strips for this week and turned them in presuming a Barack Obama victory. Mark rightly points out that doing so is a win-win either way. If Trudeau’s right, well, he’s right. If he’s wrong and John McCain wins, well, it’s a pop culture faux pas that is both funny and notable (probably followed by a “dream” explanation and a rude awaking). Mark also recalls the famous MAD issue #60 from 1961 that went to press just days before the election where they printed one cover showing John F. Kennedy as the winner and one with Richard M. Nixon, and then printed the issue with two “front covers” one upside down on the “back” and half the issue printed upside down after it, therefore rendering the issue both “right” and “wrong” in equal measure:

I have another MAD election story to tell that is even more bizarre.

In October of 2000 MAD was putting together it’s annual “MAD 20 People, Events and Things” issue and I was assigned the obligatory page making fun of the presidential election of that year, George W. Bush versus Al Gore. The issue was going to press on Nov. 8th, the day after the election. Not knowing who was going to win, I was asked to do two versions of the image, one with Bush being sworn in and one with Gore, showing the appropriate despondent other candidate and new first lady as well. Here were the images I did:

Since the print date was so close, they editors actually turned in both pages to the printer and were going to literally call them up on the 8th and tell them which to run. I remember The Lovely Anna and I were vacationing in Hawaii at the time of the election (you have to love absentee voting), and on the 8th I got up and checked the internet to see which of my illustrations would run in MAD.

… of course there was no winner. Not the next day, or the next, or the next. Thanks to “hanging chads”, general partisan stupidity and the controversy surrounding Florida’s electoral votes, the actual “winner” wasn’t known for weeks.

MAD waited for a few days to see if a result would be forthcoming, delaying the printing of those pages and the final stapling of the magazine as a result. Finally they went to press having printed half the issues with Bush and half with Gore as the winner. The piece was moved from “Dumbest Thing” #11 to #1 (actually this was decided well beforehand), and featured the following disclaimer:

Editor’s Note: For the purpose of historical inaccuracy, some editions of this issue depict George W. Bush being sworn in, while others show Al Gore. In the interest of bipartisanship, we urge all Americans to buy them both!

I believe I have relayed this story before here on The MAD Blog but I thought it worth revisiting on yet another Election Day.

The weekend of October 4th and 5th was the 20th anniversary of the Minnesota FallCon comic book convention in St. Paul, MN. Thanks to Northwest Airlines I missed Saturday but made it on Sunday.

It’s fun to go to these kinds of shows now and again. No, MAD isn’t exactly “The Uncanny X-Men” but I do get a few people who stop by and tell me they read and enjoy MAD. I draw caricatures for people and do little sketches and such, plus sell originals. I’m not really expecting to make any money doing this, but that is what you do when you are a guest at one of these things so I do it. Sunday was a kind of quiet day but that was nice as I brought Number One Son Thomas with and we got to walk around a bit.

I also got to see a bunch of the artists who worked with us this summer at the theme park.

Me and Casey “Caseybug” Mosman, who shared a table with me. Casey
worked with us at Valleyfair this summer doing caricatures and is a
very talented cartoonist.

Valleyfair caricature veterans Brett Hiorn and Joey Hetzel

The super talented Doug Manhke

Animator and caricaturist Corbett Vanoni and his wife Jennifer

The obligatory picture of the Batmobile

A small, quiet, rural town in the middle of Missouri is not the place one might expect to find a group of well known syndicated comic strip cartoonists (and one lowly MAD artist) gathered for a speaking engagement, but that’s just what happens every year around this time in Marceline, MO. Well, the lowly MAD artist doesn’t show up every year, but there is always a number of cartooning luminaries that speak, participate and in share their time and talents with attendees of the Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest.

Marceline might be the kind of sleepy little town that you ordinarily barely slow down through on your way from big city to big city, but it’s special in several ways. First, it’s special in the way that all similar small towns are… everyone knows everyone and the sense of community and family is tremendously strong. If the big cities and metro centers of this county are the bricks, these communities are the mortar of this nation. These people and communities like them are what makes America into what it is. The other thing that makes Marceline special is one of it’s past inhabitants, and what he took with him from Marceline to eventually share with the entire world. That Marceline resident was Walt Disney.

The Disney Family Home

Disney lived in Marceline from age 4 to 9, from 1906 until 1910. His family moved there from Chicago, the big city to the small town life of farming. Disney was never shy about how Marceline was a huge influence on him and the ideas and concepts he’d later apply to his films and life’s work. In 1938, Disney wrote:

“Everything connected with Marceline was a thrill to us… to tell the truth more things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have ever happened since – or are likely to in the future.”

There is much evidence of this, from the obvious Marceline design influences in Disneyland and Disneyworld, to the small town fascination that permeated Disney’s work in film and his theme park concepts. Disney was enthralled with the idea of small town America, and all that seems to have stemmed from the time he spent as a boy in this small railroad town in Missouri.

Each years since they celebrated Walt’s birthday in 2001, Marceline puts on a weekend event called the Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest, where they celebrate not only Disney’s life and his time in their town, but cartooning as an art form. The speakers that have graced the stage in the nostalgic Uptown Theater on Marceline’s Main St. would pack the house at any comics convention or big city symposium. Cartooning giants like Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist), Lynn Johnston (For Better or Worse), Chris Browne (Hagar the Horrible), Ann Telnaes (Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist), Jim Borgman (Zits and another Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist), Tom Wilson Jr. (Ziggy) and many others over the years. That’ some serious cartooning star power.

The 2008 guest artists (L to R): Dave Coverly, Greg Evans, Jan Eliot,
Me, Michael Jantze, Disney “architectural miniatures” sculptor Dale Varner

This year’s ToonFest had another stellar lineup. Greg Evans (Luanne), Jan Eliot (Stone Soup), Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), Michael Jantze (The Norm and Jantze Studios) and my humble self, who these great talents acquiesced to slum with for the weekend. Seriously, though, what a great lineup of speakers. The speakers presented in the Uptown Theater, a landmark old school theater in the heart of Marceline’s Main St.

Me emceeing the show

I was honored to be the emcee of the speaking event. We presented twice, once on Friday to a theater full of high school kids, and once on Saturday to the general public.

Greg Evans

First up was Greg Evans. I’ve met Greg on numerous occasions and his is one of the most soft spoken and pleasant guys you will ever meet. He’s also a smart and funny person and it’s easy to see why his strip, Luanne, is so successful. He talked about how he got into cartooning, and offered some great advice. One thing he said really stuck with me, and that was about how he struggled with getting syndicated for years. Basically he was trying to be too analytical about his subject matter, trying to hard to write a strip about something that he thought was different and filled a niche that was missing on the comic’s page. He realized later he was trying to write about things he knew nothing about. Once he started writing about what he knew (his teenage daughter gave him all the insight he needed about teenage girls) he created something that resonated with readers.

Jan Eliot

Jan Eliot, creator of Stone Soup, I had never really met before. I really enjoyed spending some time getting to know this wonderful lady. Cartooning is more than a bit of a boy’s club, but despite that when a woman cartoonist get’s a chance they often hit a homerun. Jan started her strip, which would eventually become syndicated as Stone Soup, when she was a single working mom trying to raise two daughters on her own. I was impressed by her perseverance as well as her work. Her strip is beautifully drawn and written. Some of her originals were on display at the cartoon art show, and she’s very old school doing the art with a dip pen and traditional tools. I still love that look. Her story was inspirational, and she’s a terrific person.

Dave Coverly

Dave Coverly, creator of Speed Bump, probably got the biggest laughs of the day. His single panel cartoon is laugh out loud funny. I had met him several times but never really got to talk with him much, so it was great hanging out and getting to know him a little. I told him over a beer later that his artwork impressed me greatly. It isn’t just that his concepts and gags are funny, because they are, but his drawings are funny. That’s a powerful combination. Sadly we do not get Speed Bump in any of our local papers, so that’s one I’ve subscribed to online. I won’t miss another day of it. Dave’s a great talent and I can see why he’s been nominated for “Cartoonist of the Year” by the National Cartoonist Society for the last 4 years. He’s going to take that ugly statue home in the next year or two, and well deserved.

Micheal Jantze

Michael Jantze I have had the pleasure of being friends with for some years now. He’s been a speaker at our North Central Chapter meeting more than one, and we got to hang out at the Minnesota Fall Con one year ( I even took him to a Minnesota Twins game). He’s a very smart guy, and after he took his comic strip The Norm out of traditional syndication and online he’s been busy coming up with the next generation of comic strip media. He recognized that the traditional newspaper delivery format for comic strips is slowly dying, and that if comics are to survive into the 21st century they need a cost effective way to be electronically delivered to the next generations of readers. He demonstrated some of the concepts they’ve been working on, and the progression of ideas were fascinating. His studio’s “Audio Comics” are a blend of simple animatic animation, voice-over and design effects that keep the basic feel and delivery of a comic strip’s gags and pacing but become visually viable for delivery via the web or a cell phone. The future of comics unveiled in Marceline, MO!

The speakers do a Q & A after the presentations

Unfortunately the attendance at Toonfest is not exactly like the Olympics. These great speakers presented to a half filled theater, many of who were locals (who are of course welcome, but it’s out of towners we want to bring in). That’s really a shame. Marceline is not an easy place to get to (2 hours drive from the nearest commercial airport), but one would hope that line ups like these would bring in more interested people. There were some folks that traveled long distances to be there, however. There was one guy from Long Island NY, several people from Florida, a number from St. Louis and other somewhat nearby areas. I am sure they were not disappointed. I hope future years see more cartoon fans and cartoonists making the trek. It’s worth it.

On Saturday there was a parade down Main St., where all the speakers were “Grand Marshalls”.

After the Parade the guests artists all received these wonderful plaques with a small piece of the Walt Disney “Dreaming Tree” mounted on it.

The bubbly Megan presents me with my plaque

After the Saturday speaking program there was a ceremony out at the former Disney home and farm. On the property is a huge cottonwood tree Walt called “The Dreaming Tree” where he spent a lot of time just sitting and thinking, listening to the nearby train’s whistle and watch the sky wheel above. Each year saplings from the tree, which itself is not in the best of shape after 150 years or so of life, are planted by the guest cartoonists who are inducted into the “Order of PlantEars”, followed by a visit to Walt’s beloved barn, which he called “The Happy Place”.

The Dreaming Tree ceremony

The 2008 order of PlantEars inductees

Jan shows off her green thumb

The original barn disappeared after the Disney’s left Marceline, likely burned as firewood during the Great Depression, and this recreation was painstakingly built in the exactly spot. Inside are the signatures of thousands of Disney fans thanking Walt for what he gave to them and the world.

The Happy Place

We also squeezed in a meeting of our local chapter of the National Cartoonist Society, the North Central Chapter.

North Central Chapter members (L to R): Mike Edholm, Me, Cedric Honstadt,
Ted Goff, Paul Fell, Eric Scott, Scott Holmes

The fest itself has lots of activities for kids like the “Princess Tea” and other fun stuff. I had a great time and the Toonfest folks, especially Kaye Malins, Barbie Boyd and Debbie Foster (as well as everyone else), treat the visiting cartoonists like family and royalty. Thanks to them and to all the cartoonists who attended and who I got to spend time with… there were more than just the speakers. Like I said, great fun.

Special thanks to car pool pal Cedric Honstadt for some of the above pictures.

I’m leaving this morning on the long drive down to Marceline, Missouri to attend the annual Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest, where as I mentioned before I will be emceeing the speaker events and speaking myself. It’s about a 7 hour drive through beautiful northern Iowa (insert snare drum rimshot here), land of windmills, plains and… uh… more windmills.

Along the way there will doubtless be at least one stop at a “Kum and Go“, which seem to be at every highway exit ramp in Iowa. Until I actually stopped at one I had thought it was a drive through brothel. I was further confused by their slogan: “We Go All Out!”. Wow, that’s even more wild than in Vegas, I was thinking. No wonder Bucky Jones lives in Iowa. As it turns out, it’s just another gas station and convenience store… just with a dirty sounding name. Oh well. I can still say I got a Slurpee at the Kum and Go.

I will also be on the lookout for a Taylor’s Maid-Rite resturant, home of the “loose meat” sandwich. In case you’ve been living under a rock in Iowa, or just else anywhere else in the United States, a “Loose meat” sandwich is a scoop or two of ground beef that has been fried up not in a patty but scattered to the corners of the grill, resulting in a “Sloppy Joe” but without the tomato sauce binder. They are a lot of fun to eat because, unlike their more boring cousin the “hamburger”, the Maid-Rite doesn’t just sit there in between the bun waiting for you to take a bite. Oh, no. You have to work a little harder than that! They dribble and splat out of all sides of the bun, resulting in entertaining and challenging methods of eating like the “from down under” and “snake bite snatch” techniques. Of course no matter how you do it, at least 1/3 of the sandwich has to be eaten with a spoon. A must stop.

IF I survive the drive through Iowa, I will surely be back here on the MAD Blog with a full play by play on Monday, with PHOTOS (possibly of a Kum and Go as well). In the meantime, there will still be the usual daily postings here on the MAD Blog thanks to the miracle of pre-date blogging.

Last week I wrote about the Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest event in Marceline, MO and how my chapter of the National Cartoonists Society is going to have our fall meeting at the event.

Since I wrote that and began organizing our chapter’s meeting I have been tapped by the Toonfest organizers to both emcee the speaker’s presentations on both Friday (Student Day) and Saturday as well as do my own speaking presentation on both days. Looks like I just went from a spectator to a spectacle for the weekend event. Here is a link to the speaker lineup for the event, and here is the tentative schedule of speakers on both days:

Friday, September 19- Student Audience

9:00-9:15     Welcome by Kaye Malins and Kick Off from Tom Richmond
9:15-9:45    Greg Evans
9:50- 10:20    Jan Eliot
10:25-10:55    Dave Coverly
11:00-11:45    Lunch
11:50-12:20    Michael Jantze
12:25-12:55    Tom Richmond
1:00-1:30    Wrap Up, questions, etc.

Saturday, September 20- General Public

12:30-12:45     Welcome by Kaye Malins and Kick Off from Tom Richmond
12:45-1:15    Greg Evans
1:20-1:50    Jan Eliot
1:55-2:25    Dave Coverly
2:30-2:45    Break/Drawings
2:50-3:20    Michael Jantze
3:25-3:55    Tom Richmond
4:00-5:00    Audience questions and Round table

My presentation will be a Powerpoint with some of my latest work, some anecdotes about working for MAD and some talk about drawing caricatures. I will also have a few pieces in the art show. If you are a reader of “The MAD Blog” and attending, come up and say hello.

Artwork by Jay Kennedy Scholarship winner Juana Medina

A few days ago I wrote a brief post about last year’s dual recipients of the National Cartoonist Society Foundation’s scholarships. This year the NCSF awarded the first Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, an award established by a donation to the NSCF by KingFeatures in memory of the late jay Kennedy, to Juana Medina, a sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

From The Daily Cartoonist:

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) announced the winner of the first annual Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, Juana Medina, a sophomore at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Medina edged out almost two hundred applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000.00 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award convention. She was chosen by a jury of ten of the nation’s top cartoonists.

Juana Medina was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She completed high school in 1998 then moved to the U.S.A. where she has lived since. For two years, she studied at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. and is now majoring in Graphic Design at RISD. She is a regular contributor to the College Hill Independent, a weekly magazine produced by students at Brown University and RISD. Her work has appeared in publications in South America and has been part of collective exhibitions in Colombia and Mexico.

In her application for the award, Medina wrote: “I grew up in a country where war has been a constant since long before I was born. Our voices have been quieted by terrorist acts and constant threats from both governmental and clandestine groups, up to a point where the smell of gunpowder and the countless bomb threats became a part of our daily life … I found situations where there is little I can do to change reality, but I have found in cartooning a voice that strongly reflects my feelings and intentions. I have found a way to raise consciousness without scolding, fuming or losing my stomach to an ulcer.”

Medina will receive her award and meet the professional cartoonists who selected her at the National Cartoonists Society’s Annual Reuben Awards banquet in New Orleans on May 24th.

As one of the NCSF scholarship committee members who juried the many submissions for this award, I can tell you the choice was not an easy one. There were many terrific submissions from a lot of talented and deserving students of cartooning. Picking one was no easy task.

Congratulations to Juana and to all the participants for making it such a tough decision. I hope we’ll see just as big a group next year. Visit the NCSF scholarship page to watch for details on the 2009 scholarship, to be released soon.

In comic shops now and on news stands Tuesday, February 19th:

MAD # 487 (Mar. 2008)

• Cover (Uncredited)
• The Fundalini Pages (Charles Akins, John Caldwell, Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer, Garth Gerhart, Jeff Kruse, Jacob Lambert, Greg Leitman, Ryan Pagelow, Adam Rust, Sam Sisco, Jack Syracuse)
• “Zeroes” (Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond)
  
• The Darker Side of The Lighter Side (Dave Berg)
• Monroe and… High School Musical (Anthony Barbieri, Tom Fowler, Ryan Flanders)
• Zygote 101 (Scott Bricher)
  
• If Classic Old Movie Scenes Were Filmed Today (Dick DeBartolo, Hermann Mejia)
  
• Planet TAD!!!!! (Tim Carvell, Brian Durniak)
  
• Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper)
• Why George W. Bush is in Favor of Global Warming (Jacob Lambert, Joel Pett, Mike Peters, Jack Higgins, Dick Locher, Matt Davies, Clay Bennett, Michael Ramirez, Ben Sargent, Steve Breen, Jim Morn, )
  
• Extremist Makeover: Political Edition (Jeff Kruse, Drew Friedman)
• MAD’s Bat-tastic The Dark Knight Outtakes (Uncredited)
• A MAD Look at HALO (Sergio Aragonés)
• American Gangster (Arnie Kogen, Mort Drucker)
• What The Heck is the Difference? (Norman Mingo)
• MAD Fold-In (Al Jaffe)
• Drawn Out Dramas (Sergio Aragonés)
• Next Month In Mad #488: The MAD Monkey Issue!

This issue has the parody of “Heroes” I did what seems like ages ago. Here’s a sneak peek:

The initial Pencil Rough…
Click Image for a Closer Look!

Click for a Closer Look!

What are you waiting for? Go buy a copy, Clod!

On news stands tomorrow, January 22nd:

MAD # 486 (Feb. 2008)

• Cover (Uncredited)
• The Fundalini Pages (Charles Akins, Peter Bagge, Scott Bricher, Tom Bunk, Desmond Devlin, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Jacob Lambert, Jack Syracuse, Sumukh Torgalkar, P.C. Vey)
• George W. Bush “Spins” his Final State of the Union Address (Idea: Frank Jacobs, Ward Sutton)
• Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper)
• Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions (Al Jaffee, colorist: Ryan Flanders)
• Zeroes- A MAD Political Parody (Uncredited)
• A MAD Look at Death (Sergio Aragonés)
• MAD Presents- The Whitest Kids U Know- A Special Pull Out Advertising Section
  • Cover (Mark Fredrickson)
  • Get To Know The Whitest Kids U’ Know… (Dick DeBartolo, Hermann Mejia)
  • “Scaring Babies” (Jack Syracuse)
  • “The Pregnancy Test” (Drew Friedman)
  • “Political War” (Tom Bunk)
  • “Sexy Fawn” (Tom Richmond)
• Monroe and…the Recall (Anthony Barbieri, Tom Fowler, colorist: Ryan Flanders)
• When the Morbidly Obese Go Bad (John Caldwell)
• MAD’s Juvenile “Kid Nation” Outtakes (Uncredited)
• The Strip Club (Scott Nickel, John Kovaleski, Ted Rall, Stan Arrowood, Joey Sayers, Douglas Paszkiewicz, Christopher Baldwin)
• Happy Hour Candidate Rundown (Ted Rall)
• Man vs. Wild… At The Mall- (David Shayne, Hermann Hejia)
• What the Heck is the Difference? (Original Artist- Mort Drucker)
• MAD Fold-In (Al Jaffe)
• Drawn Out Dramas (Sergio Aragonés)
• Next Month In Mad #487: Heroes and American Ganster!

My contribution to this issue is an unusual one, being part of another ad insert similar to the one MAD did a few months ago for Ball Park Franks. I’ll post a few sneak peaks tomorrow.

In comic book shops tomorrow and on news stands November 18th:

MAD # 485 (Jan. 2008)

• Cover (Mark Fredrickson)
• The Fundalini Pages (Dick DeBartolo, Desmond Devlin, Harrison Greenbaum, Glen LeLievre, Hermann Meijia, Todd Nauck, Bob Staake, Don Vaughan)
• The MAD 20- The Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2007

1. Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennel (Jeff Kruse, Mark Fredrickson)
2. Bush Breaks Presidential Record for Time Off (Desmond Devlin, Mark Stutzman)
3. Imus (Dave Croatto)
4. Britney Spears (Gary Hallgren)
5. Walter Reed Army Hospital Scandal (Jacob Lambert, Dave Croatto, Irving Schild)
6. Anna Nicole Smith Paternity Trial (Mort Drucker)
7. Paris Hilton (Uncredited)
8. The Crazy Diapered Astronaut (Scott Maiko, Charles Akins)
9. The Giant Toy Recall (Matthew A, Cohen, Jason Schneider)
10. Isiah Washington Bashes Homosexuals (Richard Williams)
11. Keith Richards (Jacob Lambert, Mark Fredrickson)
12. Scooter Libby (Jacob Lambert)
13. The Sopranos Finale (Tom Richmond)
14. The Creation Museum (Josh Eiserike, Hermann Mejia)
15. IF I DID IT by O.J. Simpson (Drew Friedman)
16. Lindsay Lohan (Nick Danzi, Scott Bricher)
17. Alberto Gonzales (Steve Smallwood)
18. The Senator in the Bathroom Stall (Nick Coulas)
19. Mad 20 Fold In (Al Jaffee)
20. Sanjaya (Scott Bricher)

• Planet TAD!!!!! (Tim Carvell, Brian Durniak))
  
• Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper)
• What The Heck is the Difference?
• A MAD Look at Dancing with the Stars (Sergio Aragonés)
• Drawn Out Dramas (Sergio Aragonés)
• Next Month In Mad #486: Man Vs. Wild!

My contribution this year was a two pager with 20 different “Alternate Sopranos Endings that Would Have Been Better”. Here’s a few examples:

The Gallagher Ending

The Mission Impossible Ending

The Monty Python Ending

So…. What are you waiting for? Go buy a copy, Clod!