This week’s sketch is a 10 minute warm-up study of my coincidental obsession, Christina Applegate. She’s been in the news recently because of her sudden fight with breast cancer, which it looks like she has beaten. God bless her.

I say “coincidental obsession” because for some bizarre reason the Universe has chosen me to be Christina’s official publication caricature artist. I’ve related this story before after I did her latest sitcom as a parody in MAD. Back in the early 90′s I did the pencil work on a comic book series called “Married… with Children” for NOW Comics, and naturally drew Christina all the time in the books. NOW figured out early on that putting her on the cover sold more copies, so more than a few stories centered around her “Kelly” character.

Fast forward about 15 years and I find myself assigned the art chores on the MAD parody of the TV show “Samantha Who?” starring…? Yep. Christina Applegate. I guess that is not that weird when you think about it, but I can’t help imagining someone on the set bringing a copy of the MAD issue with that parody in to show the cast and crew, and then Christina reacting with a “not this guy again!” groan. Of course, that’s all in my head as I am quire sure she never knew the name of the artist who drew all those comic books issues, nor would she bother to look at the credits of the MAD parody for that matter. I just think it’s funny that of all the cartoonists on the planet, I end up drawing her in both the NOW comic book and in MAD.

It’s worth noting that I am not the only artist to caricature Christina in print. I am sure there have been a number of spot illustrations of her in entertainment magazines or the like, and MAD did a parody of the original “Married… with Children” TV show back in MAD # 292 (circa 1990) with art by current MAD art director Sam Viviano.

Speaking of Sam, he may well be reading this post and thinking “What the hell is Richmond doing writing blog posts about Christina Applegate when he’s behind on his MAD job?!?”. Oops! Gotta go!

I get the call in mid February from MAD art director Sam Viviano about doing the art for a five page TV parody of a show called “Samantha Who?”

“Never heard of it”, I said truthfully. I’m not a big watcher of TV unless I get assigned a show or get hooked on one after I do the parody.

“It’s a new sitcom starring Christina Applegate“, he informs me.

Hoo boy. Here we go again.

Some time ago I blogged a little about my first real job in cartooning, penciling a comic book for a Chicago based publisher called NOW Comics. NOW was primarily known for it’s licensed comic book titles like “The Twilight Zone“, “Ghostbusters“, “The Green Hornet“, “Mr. T and the T-Force“ and “Married… with Children“. I was given the penciling chores on that last title, which we approached with a pseudo MAD Magazine flavor in that there was no attempt at realistic drawing but rather a combination cartoon and caricature look. I spent about 600 pages drawing the actors from that show… including Christina Applegate.

Now, some 13 years since my last issue of Married… with Children was on the stands, I once again found myself drawing Christina Applegate in a comic book style medium.

Not that Ms. Applegate likely pays any attention to stuff like that, but if she did she must think I am some kind of psychotic stalker to be always drawing her in comics and magazines.

As weird as it was to be drawing “Kelly Bundy” again, I found two things interesting about it. First, when I was called on to draw a panel of her as Kelly in a Married… With Children scene I found I did not need to dig up reference for Peg, Al or their living room. Apparently those images are burned into my brain. Secondly, after I was done with the job I dug out a few of those old comics and was amazed at how far my work has evolved and improved since the bad old days. That’s gratifying to see even if it’s embarrassing to see my name on that crappy work I did for NOW in the early 90′s. I can only hope 13 years from now I will be equally embarrassed by the work I am doing today.

Here’s a sneak peek at the “Samantha Who?” parody artwork, and a couple of images from my work circa 1994 from NOW’s Married… with Children.

Click for a closer look!

Ah… the Bundys! I can almost hear Nirvana playing over the radio!

Here are some old Married… with Children images (I did just the pencils):

This was a promotional ad image for the comic book

A page from Issue #1 of the “Kelly goes to Kollege” mini-series