General
February 26th, 2010 | Posted in General
Way back in 1954 MAD lead off issue number 12 with a soon-to-be-classic parody of the comic book “Archie”, written by the late, inimitable Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by the late, incomparable Will Elder. Kurtzman, as is well known, had some disagreements with MAD publisher Bill Gaines over pretty much everything and took his show on the road to the House of Hugh (Hefner, that is… AKA Playboy) to produce the short lived humor magazine Trump! which lasted only two wonderful but expensive-to-produce issues, and also included the likes of Will Elder. Harvey and Will stuck together with Humbug (11 issues, 1957-58), and later had… READ MORE
February 20th, 2010 | Posted in General
This is a new video promoting the International Society of Caricature Artists. I have been a member since 1997 and served as president for two years in 1999 and 2000. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1t3HPhCFqY[/youtube] I have written plenty of posts over the last few years extolling the virtues of the ISCA. If you do caricatures in any capacity in your work it is a very worthwhile organization to be a part of. READ MORE
February 19th, 2010 | Posted in General
The announcement of the new executive team at DC Entertainment– Jim Lee and Dan DiDio (Co-Publishers of DC Comics), Geoff Johns (Chief Creative Officer), John Rood (EVP, Sales, Marketing and Business Development) and Patrick Caldon (EVP, Finance and Administration), sure wasn’t just made and then glossed over. Both The Beat and Comic Book Resources have already had some informative interviews with these folks over their new duties, the directions they envision and the future of DC and it’s properties. DC Entertainment is, of course, the owners of MAD Magazine. Naturally those who work for and with MAD want to know what it all means to… READ MORE
February 18th, 2010 | Posted in General
I found this video interesting: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8[/youtube] Those are a lot of eye opening statistics. I’m not sure how any of that applies to anything, but there it is. READ MORE
February 15th, 2010 | Posted in General
I got a few cool cartoons drawn by some of the cartoonists who I accompanied on the recent cultural exchange trip to Cuba: Image ©2010 by Brian Narelle Brian Narelle drew this one on some note cards he’d brought for doing doodles on. The joke is that the one souvenir I wanted from Cuba was an EMPTY cigar box. I wanted one of the authentic wood boxes to use in the studio for pens and stuff. I had a hard time finding one, so I bought a box of 10 cigars (Partigas No. 4s) which we smoked throughout the week and brought the box back… READ MORE
February 13th, 2010 | Posted in General
I had been thinking about writing a post on why doing caricature focusing on nothing but ridicule and insult is different than doing caricature focusing on capturing the essence of the subject… but my buddy Ed Steckley beat me to it. From Ed’s Blog: Caricatures that are downright mean and nasty, for apparently no other reason than to be an outlet for the creator to freely (and passive-aggressively) be a jerk and go for a cheap laughs are, in my opinion, the lowest form of caricature. ¬¨‚ĆThey have nothing to do with satire OR parody, and frankly may be the least cerebral of all types… READ MORE
February 9th, 2010 | Posted in General
It occurred to me as I was about to start this post with “I am a big fan of Robert E. Howard‘s Conan the Barbarian stories and…” that I start a lot of posts that way. This seems especially true when it has to do with authors of book series: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien, Frank Herbert, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King… maybe I am a sucker for epic tales and the continuing adventures of recurring characters. However, when I say I’m a “big fan of” something, I always mean it. I read the Conan books way back in junior high, and enjoyed then thoroughly.… READ MORE
February 6th, 2010 | Posted in General
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYx-JCAc-ko[/youtube] This YouTube video is from an episode of the 90’s TV series “Horror Hall Of Fame” and features the story of EC Comics and their marvelous line of horror comics from the 1950’s. Bill Gaines is interviewed for the piece, which was filmed only a year or so before his death. I’m afraid the video quality is not good, but it’s passable. It’s fun to hear about the classic E.C. Artists like “Ghastly” Graham Ingels, Johnny Craig, Joe Orlando and of course Jack Davis. Al Feldstein is also interviewed as well as a few others with E.C. connections. Actually the most frightening thing in… READ MORE
