General
February 23rd, 2021 | Posted in General
Just a reminder that you have about two weeks or so to get your birthday wishes for Al Jaffee‘s 100th birthday to MAD Art Director Emeritus Sam Viviano. Sam hasn’t set a deadline but he needs time to put all of this together, so I’d suggest you make sure your cards, letters, fruitcakes, or fresh fish arrive by Wed, March 10th. That’s only TWO WEEKS from tomorrow! What are you waiting for, clod… a furshlugginer invitation? READ MORE
February 16th, 2021 | Posted in General
This week’s CLAPTRAP update is a video “behind the scenes” look at the creation of Des and my splash page for our parody of “Goodfellas” that we shared a few weeks ago. Enjoy: READ MORE
February 6th, 2021 | Posted in General
Like the rest of Planet Earth I was saddened to hear of the passing of acting legend Christopher Plummer yesterday. What a legacy he left, though. Few actors can boast a career as long and storied as he had. He was still turning in great performances after 70 years of acting… he won a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar at age 82, and was nominated again at age 89! I loved him in “Knives Out”. He also played the Great Detective in “Murder by Decree” in 1979, and made my Sherlock Holmes lineup: RIP… READ MORE
February 1st, 2021 | Posted in General
Are you kidding me? Yet ANOTHER teaser image leading up to the big reveal of another movie parody opening splash page from Desmond Devlin and my upcoming book, CLAPTRAP??? Mama mia… this is worse than not adding a pinch of sugar to your red sauce! Pop culture news website Bleeding Cool will release the exclusive full first look tomorrow! READ MORE
January 30th, 2021 | Posted in General
My fourth job for Cracked was a parody of the movie “Gladiator”, also written by Barry Dutter, which appeared in issue #347, Sept 2000. Sadly this is the job where I had finally had enough of Cracked and how things were run there, and this became my last job for them. This time we did the parody AFTER the movie had come out (unlike what we did for “Xmen” in the previous job I did), which for me is the only way to do a parody. You have to actually SEE the film before you can make fun of it properly. To be fair there… READ MORE
January 29th, 2021 | Posted in General
After writing my own parodies for my first two appearances in Cracked Magazine, in the early spring of 2000 I was assigned the art duties working on someone else’s script for the first time. The movie being spoofed was the first X-Men film, and the writer was Barry Dutter. Barry had already been doing work for Cracked before the AMI buyout, so he was one freelancer who did continue into the Dick Kulpa era. He had writing credits at Marvel (including their “What The?!?” humor comic), Bongo Comics (The Simpsons), Ren & Stimpy Comics, and other work. He wrote a lot of stuff for Cracked… READ MORE
January 28th, 2021 | Posted in General
Following my turning in the final of my “Godzilla” parody to Cracked in late 1999, publisher Dick Kulpa gave me carte blanche to do another of basically anything I wanted. The HBO series “The Sopranos” had been a huge hit the year before, and season two had just gotten started when I decided to do a spoof of it. I hadn’t seen much of the show so I tracked down a few VCR taped episodes from some friends, including fellow caricaturist Jim Batts from St. Louis. I “binged” them long before “binging” was a thing. Like the “Godzilla” parody, I needed to write this piece… READ MORE
January 26th, 2021 | Posted in General
Since I am sharing my work with MAD chronologically every Monday, I think it’s only fair I also go back and take a look at my short time with Cracked Magazine. I’ve been thinking about that lately since the publisher of Cracked during the time I was there, Dick Kulpa, recently passed away. Anyway here’s the first part of the story of how I started working with Cracked. The year was 1999, and I had started setting my sights on breaking into MAD. At the time I was president of the National Caricaturists Network (now the International Society of Caricature Artists), and we were planning… READ MORE
