Surf’s Up Dept.

Going MAD in Vain Dept.

From the Vanity Fair website:

In the May 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, David Hajdu, author of the book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, pays homage to the “usual gang of idiots” behind Mad magazine.

The website has a nice slideshow of 17 covers from the last 60 years of MAD. The article itself is said to contain interviews with many classic MAD artists. I haven’t seen it yet but am on the lookout for a copy.

McNutty Cartoons Dept.

Over on my friend Cedric Hohnstadt‘s excellent blog I discovered that our mutual friends Michael Jantze (cartoonist of “The Norm” strip) and Kelly McNutt (Minnesotan cartoonist and animator) have posted some of their animated collaborations on YouTube:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQSOGqpqwHA[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbQLCeRr5_c&feature=related[/youtube]

There’s also a link on their YouTube page to an animation short they produced for Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman‘s “Zits“:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaUh3YlzO_g[/youtube]

Three very different styles of animation and design, all very well done. Hopefully Michael and Kelly have more up their sleeves and we’ll see them soon. You can check out Michael’s YouTube page for updates and visit Kelly’s blog as well for upcoming news and projects.

Bad Monkey Dept.

The last issue of MAD, #489, caused a mini-fervor among hardcore MAD fans, as it was noted on several message boards that longtime MAD scribe Dick DeBartolo had no writing credit of any kind in the issue. That would mean an end to his consecutive issue streak of 386 issues (he’s had a writing credit in every issue since #103). However in a correction it is noted in issue #489 that Dick’s credit in the “Monkey-lini Pages” was omitted. From MAD 489:

Correction!

Due to gross incompetence, Dick “Stompy Ding Dong” Debartolo’s credit was omitted from the Friends of Monkey-lini listing in last month’s Monkey issue. As a result, editors T. Worthington Snoots, Goopy III and Baron von Whoopsie have all been severely reprimanded and had their tire swinging privileges revoked indefinitely.

No correction, however, for their dedication of the issue to the “late, great J. Fred Muggs” (the TV celebrity chimp who painted the cover of MAD #38 in March of 1958) despite the fact that J. Fred is retired and “still lives comfortably with guardians in his Citrus Park home of more than 30 years” at the age of 56. He may have a few years left in him. “Cheeta“, the chimpanzee actor who appeared in the early Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and many other films, is 76 years old and living in Palm Springs.

Incidentally, check out Mike Slaubaugh‘s MAD Lists website for other stats on the appearances of MAD contributors and such.