February 20th, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
An art director’s job, as it pertains to illustrators, is to work with an artist to create an image or images for a project, be it to accompany an article in a magazine, illustrate a book, add visuals to an advertisement or a product packaging. Anytime a client needs a piece of art there is almost always an art director (AD) involved. Basically ADs act as a translator for the client. They translate what the client’s needs are into the artist’s visual language. They have several tasks along the way. First they need to find an artist who’s work is what the project and client… READ MORE
February 19th, 2007 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
If there was ever a poster child for the seedy side of becoming famous, she is it. I bought an entertainment mag with Anna Nicole Smith on the cover intending it as reference for this sketch at a train station bookstore. The clerk who rang me up immediately offered me her opinion on the matter. “Double murder”, she says. She’s probably right, but it’s the circus of it all that makes me cringe. READ MORE
February 18th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What movies have you done the parody art for? A. Do you mean “what movies have you done the parody art for in MAD” or “… for any humor publication”? Before I worked for MAD I did a few parodies for MAD knock-off Cracked Magazine. I don’t have the dates or issue numbers for the Cracked work handy, but here’s the breakdown: Cracked- “God-Hilla” (Godzilla)… also wrote this one “X-creMENt” (X-Men) “Glad-idiot” (Gladiator) MAD- #405 (May 01) “Traff-eccch” (Traffic) #410 (Oct 01) “Lotta Crotch- Bazoom Raider”(Lara Croft- Tomb Raider) #415 (Mar 02) “Behind Empty Lines” (Behind Enemy Lines) #417 (May 02) “The Royal Paininthebums”… READ MORE
February 17th, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
I received the following e-mail from artist Ernie Kwiat: Every company I work for seems to have a different Work for Hire contract for me to sign. Since I usually am dealing with licensed characters and have no claim to their copyright or trademark, I usually just sign the contracts and hope to get my money. Lately these contracts have been getting more and more objectionable to me. How do you handle them? I’d have used that as a mailbag question but it needs a lot more than a quick answer. It also opens up the opportunity for me to write about the differences between… READ MORE
February 16th, 2007 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Hard to believe pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training this week. Baseball season is right around the corner. Here is a quick study of Boston Red Sox slugger (and former Minnesota Twin) David Ortiz. Twin’s GM Terry Ryan is a wizard at trades and knowing who to keep and who to let go, but this was one of his few glaring mistakes. READ MORE
February 15th, 2007 | Posted in General
??ᬨ‚Ć To be honest I am not under any pressing deadlines but am just too busy with everything today to get any blogging done. Sorry…. READ MORE
February 14th, 2007 | Posted in Wall of Shame
This piece is the one example of something that is not my own art on the Wall of Shame. Back in August my friend and hilarious syndicated strip cartoonist Stephen Pastis gave me a “cameo” in his popular strip Pearls Before Swine. Here it is again as it appeared in the Sunday funnies: Click for a closer look I told the story about how it came about in this post, but to make a long story short Stephen is a fan of MAD and likes my work. He came up with this gag and sprung it on me when we visited him in Santa Rosa… READ MORE
February 13th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
This issue is already in subscriber’s mailboxes and in comic shops this week, and should be on news stands in the next week: MAD # 475 (March 2007) Cover (Mark Frederickson) The Fundalini Pages (Ray Alma, Paul Coker, Desmond Devlin, Duck Edwing, Garth Gerhart, Jeff Kruse, Francis Mao, Adam Rust, Kiernan P. Schmitt) A Day in the Life of Dane Cook (Scott Maiko, Hermann Mejia) The Snowman: The Alternate Version (Emily Flake) John Caldwell’s Thanks to YouTube… (John Caldwell) Refrigerator Art Reviews (Jeff Kruse, Irving Schild) MAD Decontructs TV Talk Shows… “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” (Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond) Signs You Have a… READ MORE
