General
July 12th, 2011 | Posted in General
As a big Batman fan, I found this custom Lego model of the Batcave to be mind-blowing. Creator Alex Schranz used approximately 9,000 Legos, and incorporated a neon lamp for the lighting effects. It’s “68 bricks high”, which is a little over 25 inches. I just don’t get Legos. I understand for some people it’s nearly a cult, and there is a lot of creativity and problem solving involved to build something out of these plastic bricks… but no matter how good you are with them, whatever you end up with still looks like it’s made out of Legos. READ MORE
June 30th, 2011 | Posted in General
In the sheer craziness of what is becoming my summer, I plum forgot to post my annual “Happy Birthday” to The MAD Blog, which turned five years old on the 26th of June. So far we’ve had 1,906 posts (five of which have been these lame “Happy Birthday MAD Blog” posts, so actually only 1,901 posts), 7,658 comments, 251 Sunday Mailbags, 242 Sketches o’the Week, and a 100% score on the “total waste of time” meter.¬¨‚Ć Right now the blog averages about 1.1 million page views a year, a little over 3,000 per day. Thanks for visiting for the last half decade! READ MORE
June 28th, 2011 | Posted in General
We might be seeing this ugly guy some this week… READ MORE
June 16th, 2011 | Posted in General
From The Life Magazine 2011 Photo Blog Award Winners: MAD magazine has been called revolutionary, subversive, surreal, hilarious, and a total waste of time. (The latter by its own editors). That a single publication could fill all of those roles for millions of readers, and thrive, across six decades says a lot about both the human appetite for satire and the unique vision of MAD‘s founder, William Gaines. Here, on the occasion of MAD launching its first-ever blog, Theidiotical.com, MAD‘s editor for the past 25 years, John Ficarra, shares some personal photographs of — and lively stories about — Bill Gaines; the magazine’s happily chaotic… READ MORE
June 13th, 2011 | Posted in General
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_fBTJaWfrc[/youtube] Okay… this isn’t really a Ken Burns documentary. This is one of several brilliant videos shot for the NCS Reuben Awards show by Tom Gammill. This one had me in tears… Tom is one funny guy. Hopefully R.C. got a chuckle out of it. If you haven’t seen any of Tom’s “How to Draw” series of videos, get ready for a real treat. READ MORE
June 9th, 2011 | Posted in General
Author Mark Arnold just released his two volume history of Cracked Magazine, If You’re Cracked You’re Happy! The books detail the history of the magazine from its beginnings in 1958 through its final days of multiple owners, changes and eventual demise. It’s definitely not a softball celebration of the perpetual second-fiddle-to-MAD humor magazine. There are candid interviews with former editors, contributors, and staff where punches are not pulled. There is particular venom directed at those who helmed what was left of the publication when American Media International (publisher of tabloids the National Enquirer, The Weekly World News and other things) acquired it as part of… READ MORE
June 4th, 2011 | Posted in General
Bill “Weg” Green and his burglar. Photo: Craig Abraham From the You Can’t Make it Up Department: A burglar broke into the home of an 82 year old man in Heathmont, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, back in January, 2008. The offender got away after pushing aside the homeowner and stealing his grandson’s bike. Little did the crook know that the man he brushed aside was Bill “Weg” Green, a well known sports caricaturist. When police arrived, he drew a caricature of his intruder. 15 minutes later the burglar was picked up for an unrelated crime but quickly identified as the man who had broken… READ MORE
May 20th, 2011 | Posted in General
After my post on Wednesday about how the accurate drawing of features does not necessarily create the only path to a caricature’s “recognizability”, I received an interesting email from my friend and superstar cartoonist Rick Kirkman, artist of the widely syndicated comic strip Baby Blues. Rick mentioned how he sometimes does a type of caricature with his strip and its animated TV version, where he has to “Baby Blues-ize” famous people…and I’ve seen him do it for soldiers on the USO trips we’ve taken. He also mentioned how this is frequently done on The Simpsons, Futurama and other animated shows. Another friend, Pearls Before Swine… READ MORE
