MAD Sneak Peek: Honey Boo Boo’s Family Circus
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My piece in MAD #520 was a departure from my typical work for the magazine, which when it happens is always interesting and challenging. This project was particularly fun and personally enjoyable because I am good friends with Jeff Keane, son of The Family Circus creator Bil Keane. Jeff has been doing the strip since his dad’s retirement about a decade ago and continues to do it today. Bil passed away in November of 2011. I knew Jeff would enjoy this, and it was great fun doing it. I saw him this past weekend at the Success in Comics Seminar in Annapolis, where we were both speakers. When I showed it to him, it suddenly made sense why I called about a month ago to ask him what he did his inking with.
I have occasionally added cartoon characters in cameos in my parodies for MAD, in which case I try and duplicate the look of the original character as he/she/it is drawn in the source material, but I modify the style so the characters look like they would exist in the same space as my other artwork. This was the first time MAD has asked me to do a feature that called for a complete duplication of another style. This was a bit more challenging, because I had to both ape the Keane style, but also attempt to draw caricatures of the Thompson family within that style. I had to both depart a little from the true Keane look on the one hand, and I had to compromise the likenesses (especially the older girls) on the other hand, in order to meet in the middle with a compromise on the caricatures. Some worked better than others. Here are a few more samples from that article:
There’s plenty more, including one of the classic “dotted line” Sunday panels. However, you’ll have to go out and buy a copy to see it, you cheap putz!
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Funny article. I hope you didn’t have to watch any of the show.
Ummmmm…. yep. 🙁
Love it! Family Circus was one of my favorites as a kid. The ‘lucky quarter” panel is hilarious, great job, Tom! I bet your friend was tickled.
Really, Really great! I love that Jeff appreciated the humor. I’m gonna snatch it off the newsstand for sure!
[…] now Richmond has done something that raises him to Lar-level-versatility in my eyes: A parody of the awful “Honey Boo Boo” TV show family in the style of The Family Circus. (more at the link) I have seen many a take on Family Circus (some unnecessarily cruel), but here […]
“…mama’s fat rolls!”? Laughing so hard it hurts!!! Wanna see Jeff create a caricature of you, Tom:)
Tom, ASS Kickin job! A cartoonist for all season’s I tell ya! And even though the cover of Mad is not yours I feel it’s very refreshing. And I’m sure Mark F. being the classy cover artist that he is, most likely dig’s the cover as well. Great cover MAD boys!
Thanks, everybody!
[…] From his website: […]
Relieved to hear that Jeff liked it, T. Nice job, btw! You did a gag writer proud.
Frank
Great script to work from, terrific writing, Frank!
You’re too kind, TR! Had a blast doing it. Thanks for bringing it to (disturbing) life. You can practically smell the chicken fat.
Thanks for no subtitles, I couldn’t read fast enough!