As promised, here are some of the character art I did for last night’s episode of MAD on the Cartoon Network for the segment “Superhero Millionaire Matchmaker”:

Christian Bale

Rachel from “Millionaire Matchmaker”

Patti from “Millionaire Matchmaker”

Robert Downey Jr.

Destin from “Millionaire Matchmaker”

…so says MAD Magazine via their official blog, The Idiotical. They also posted this some weeks back:

MAD isn’t exactly know for their subtlety.

By the way, if you haven’t been regularly visiting The Idiotical, you are missing out. The guys at MAD have been serious about updating this thing, and with multiple posts a day it shows. Some posts use previous content from the magazine that has some up-to-the-minute current relevance, some of it is wholly original content, and some are sneak peeks of upcoming features in the magazine. All of it is funny. Sometimes brutal, but funny. Make it a daily stop for some much-needed chuckles.

About two weeks ago I posted these images briefly because the Cartoon Network’s website listed the “Konan the Kardashian” segment I worked on as airing on Aug. 29th. It turned out that was wrong and it did not air in that episode, but did air last night. So, here again are a few images from that segment (plus one new one):

Fun episode to work on… but I always say that, don’t I?

As promised, here are a few of the designs I did for one of the segments in last night’s episode of MAD on the Cartoon Network:

From “Capt. America’s Got Talent”:

Originally I did this character with a “shake weight” as part of a gag but it got changed to a spring-based chest exerciser… too much?

Season two of MAD on the Cartoon Network will debut this Monday, Aug 29th. at 8:30/7:30 Central Time. According to the show’s website, the first episode will feature two segments I worked on: “Konan the Kardashian” and “Capt. America’s Got Talent”… I’ll leave it to your imaginations to figure out what those will be about.

I will post some of the art I did for the segments on Tuesday.

Comic-Con is over and I’m on my way back to Minnesota. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Number one son Tom mans the booth…

Drawing a caricature of some kids

The Big MAD Panel: From L to R: Host Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragonés,
editor John Ficarra, art director Sam Viviano, Dick Debartolo,
Peter Kuper, myself, Keith Knight.

Me answering a question

Not sure how this picture got mixed up in here…

They put me up on the video board just like the real artists
when I signed at the DC Comics booth.

Doing a drawing for a MAD fan

It was fun, and exhausting. Sitting at my drawing board in my studio getting caught up with work will seem like a vacation.

This is the last of the art I did for Season One of the animated MAD show on the Cartoon Network.  these appeared on the episode that aired this week in a segment called “Glee-VR”, and the subjects are Jared Padelecki and Jensen Ackles from the TV show Supernatural. I already have one episode for Season Two “in the can” as they say in the business.

Q: I love the MAD show on Cartoon Network! Its got just enough MAD Magazine in it to seem like part of the “Usual Gang” but is also different and appealing to the “Robot Chicken” crowd. How did the show do? Is there going to be a second season? What did you think of the work you did on the show?

A: I’ve been told MAD on the Cartoon Network did very well in viewership and with viewer response, although I do not have any numbers to back that up. It must have done pretty well, as they announced that it was being picked up back in November. I have already done character design for one of the second season shows, so it is full steam ahead. There will be another MAD panel presentation at the San Diego Comic-Con this year, although I will not be participating in that this time. Scheduled to appear are producers Kevin Shinick and Mark Marek, along with MAD Magazine editor John Ficarra, art director Sam Viviano and “Spy vs. Spy” artist Peter Kuper. (That’s happening Friday, July 22nd from 10:00–11:00 a.m., Room 25ABC). I am not sure when the second season premieres, but I would guess early September.

Working on the show is fun, and I’ve been surprised at how much of my drawing style gets preserved between my character designs and the final animations. The only exception to that was the last episode segment I did work for called the “Big Fang Theory”. There the animators loosely used my designs and put a more zombie-like spin on the segment. I though what they did looked pretty cool, even if my work wasn’t very evident in it anymore.

What I do for the show is definitely not full animated character design. I do a single, full-body pose for each character with a slight 3/4 view using simplified linework and very basic color treatment, and then a few extra heads with different expressions and angles—usually a straight-on and profile view. Then I will do some static poses if called for of either main characters or cameos by other characters. Some episodes have been as few as three to five characters, and some have been as many as sixteen. The animators take these and do their magic on them. I don’t actually see the results until the show airs, so it’s always fun when that happens.

I’m looking forward to working on the show again this year. The people at Warner Bros. Animation are great to work with.

Thanks to Jack V. 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!

As promised, here is some of the character design work I did on last night’s episode of MAD on the Cartoon Network. The segment was called “The Big Fang Theory” and was a mash-up of Twilight and The Big Bang Theory TV show. It is pretty hard to recognize this art in what ended up on the finished segment… they obviously went in a different direction and only used my designs very loosely, although I did like the more graphic look they came up with:

Warner Bros. Animation and the Cartoon Network just announced the release of Season One, Part One of MAD on DVD. The first 13 episodes will be included on the disc, to be available on September 20th. That should include many segments I worked on including “CSiCarly”, “uGlee”, “Ben Ten Franklin”, “The Batman Family Feud”, “Extreme Home Makeover: Fortress of Solitude Edition” and “Malcolm in Middle Earth”.

In other CN MAD news, there will be a new episode on tonight with a segment in it I worked on called “The Big Fang Theory”. I’ll post some of that art tomorrow after the show airs this evening.