August 11th, 2014 | Posted in General
In comic book shops, on the iPad and in subscribers mailboxes now, on news stands everywhere tomorrow: Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Rick Tulka, Jeff Kruse, Kevin Pope, J.C. Duffy, Matt Lassen, Jason Mustian, Chris Houghton, Peter Bagge, Megan O’Leary, Sam Sisco, Bob Eckstein, Mike Morse, Paul Coker, Kenny Keil, Dick DeBartolo, Tom Bunk, Garth Gerhart, P.C. Vey) Perfect Bacon Bed– A MAD Ad Parody (Artist: Scott Bricher) Snark Tank (Dick DeBartolo, Tom Richmond) Your Parents Say to You…/One Day You Will Say to Them… (Matt Lassen, Tim Hamilton) Spy vs. Spy (Peter Kuper) Questions We’d Like to Ask Justin Bieber (Matt Lassen, Hermann… READ MORE
August 5th, 2014 | Posted in General
According to editor John Ficarra in this article… forever. He cites that while circulation on newsstands has fluctuated and dropped over the years, the subscriber base of 100,o00 stays almost perfectly constant. So how long can Mad maintain its current state? Forever, Ficarra insists. He’s quick to point out that although newsstand sales are down, the number of Mad subscribers … roughly 100,000 … has held steady for pretty much its entire life. For generations of kids, he’s seen a pattern in the subscribers: They pick it up around the age of 12, drop it at age 16, then subscribe again out of nostalgia in… READ MORE
August 1st, 2014 | Posted in General
I’ve written here many times that, as a freelancer, you sometimes end up with some really off-the-wall jobs that take you outside the realms of your usual kind of client. The above image is one of those. Earlier in the spring I got a call about a job designing someone’s 50th birthday invitation. That kind of call or email is not unusual, I get a lot of those kinds of requests asking if I’ll do a caricature of grandma and grandpa for their anniversary, or somebody’s boss for his birthday. Those calls seldom end up as real jobs, however, frankly because those asking don’t understand… READ MORE
July 29th, 2014 | Posted in General
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKBsTUjd910[/youtube] I get asked quite a bit about the legality of selling the Limited Edition prints I have been offering the last few years. Having just got back from Comic-Con, the issue of selling images featuring characters you do not have the copyrights to is an obviously major one. Walking through the exhibit floor, you see booth after booth selling products based on or featuring characters they do not own the rights to. Professional comic book artists do private commissions of Superman, Spider-man or whatever character they are asked to draw. Sort of professional artists sell posters or prints of Batgirl or the Walking Dead… READ MORE
July 25th, 2014 | Posted in General
Day one at Comic-Con was extremely frenzied with The Tenacious D signing at the NCS booth as well as the general craziness. Here are some photos: The National Cartoonists Society booth #1307 A look at the convention floor from the booth Greg Evans (Luann) and Rick Detorie (One Big Happy) Me doing a drawing for a fan Luke McGarry, Jack Black and Kyle Gass sign at the NCS booth! Jack and Kyle signed a print of my splash page of the “School of Rock” parody from MAD The MAD corner of the DC booth DC Comics had all the batsuits and cowls on display The… READ MORE
July 24th, 2014 | Posted in General
Reporting live from the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con! Last night was preview night, which was the usual crazy frenzy since there are no panels or presentations going on to thin out the crowd on the floor. I will be at the NCS booth (#1307) today from 10 am-4 pm doing drawings, selling books and MAD originals and my Sherlock Holmes print. Tonight at 5:30 is the MAD about MAD panel in room #4. The image you see above was a special commission I was tasked with by a collector prior to coming to San Diego. I seldom have time to do this sort of thing,… READ MORE
July 20th, 2014 | Posted in General
Q: When you are tasked to draw a front cover with dozens of faces on it (like the Obama inauguration number) WHERE do you start? I avoid such jobs like the plague because I find it too intimidating – trying to get everyone in is a nightmare! A: As it happens, I did a short tutorial on constructing crowd scenes a few years ago using that same “Obama Inauguration” image as the basis. Here it is: Constructing a Crowd Scene Tutorial I’m still not exactly sure how it happened, but somewhere along the line I ended up establishing the reputation of being able to “do… READ MORE
July 18th, 2014 | Posted in General
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