On The Drawing Board- 1/19/09

BIG, crazy MAD job on the board right now. This one has an odd backstory and is, as far as I know, unique in the storied history of the magazine. Naturally I will not be able to share any of that story until the job is in print, but as that will be NEXT MONTH in MAD #499 it won’t be too long before I’m able to tell the tale.

In the meantime I am working furiously on the project in question… no time for any other jobs. Before I got started on it late last week I finished this poster job for Marlin:

Job: Illustration of a boy who’s maybe 10 years old. He’s at the front door of a house, looking contrite, eyes cast downward. He’s wearing a baseball cap. He’s got a bat resting on a step, and is there to admit that he’s broken a window (which we can see on an upper floor). Standing in the doorway is an old man who is looking at the young guy admiringly and affectionately.

Initial pencil:

I decided to have the kid looking up at the window sheepishly and apologetically, because I thought I needed to tie the three elements together. The client disagreed, wanting the kid to instead be looking down and being very sorry and embarrassed. The also wanted me to make the old guy less smiley and more like he was appreciating the kid’s honesty in confessing but still not pleased his window was broken.

Revised pencil:

I was kind of under the gun with this, so I did the revision quickly right on the computer. The client liked this one.

Here’s the final:

Click for a closer look…