Monday MADness- The Loan Wars!

Next month MAD #537 will feature the annual “MAD 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things” of the year (and yes, I did the art on one of them this year). The next several installments of Monday MADness will take a look back at some of the MAD 20 pieces I have done over the years. This one is from MAD #497, Jan 2009. It’s a commentary on the government bailout of the big banks after the mortgage implosion crisis. The concept was to spoof of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” but with Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank (with cameos by G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney). The art would be on a DVD cover but I did it more like a movie poster, using the original “Clone Wars” poster as reference. I had to try and imitate the look of the animated characters in caricature:

The Original Poster

My rough sketch…

Final Art…

Incidentally when I was working a caricature gig at the Democratic National Convention in 2009 in Charlotte, NC, I met Rep. Barney Frank. When I told him I’d drawn him in MAD he said he’d seen and loved that piece and asked me to send him a print of it, which I did.