July 18th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Now that the pencils are finished, it’s time for the inking. This has always been the toughest part for me. I??ᬨ‚Ć don’t know too many comic artists who ever feel their inked work is as effective as their pencils are, and you can count me among them. No matter how much I’ve done it, I always begin an inking job with trepidation and a certain amount of nervousness. Over the years I’ve learned to trust myself a bit more, but I still wouldn’t say it’s easy. To get started, I take out a #3 (.80) Rapidiograph pen and rule the balloons and tails, bleed and… READ MORE
July 17th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Once the pencil roughs are approved with the gang at MAD, I can move on to the final pencils. This is the stage where most of the hard work occurs. The first thing I do is transfer the roughs on to the final boards. I do this by blowing up my scans of the roughs to 200% of original size, and then printing them off on 11×17 paper. In the case of a splash, I have to use the 13×19 paper and print the image in quarters, then trim and tape them together. With the story pages, a typical row of panels fits an 11×17… READ MORE
July 16th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The next step in a MAD job is the package I get from the art department. In it is a copy of the script, printouts of the layouts and the reference materials they have gathered and the boards. The boards large pieces of Strathmore bristol with all the pages, panel borders and text boxes drawn in pencil. These are usually done by longtime MAD production guru Lenny “The Beard” Brenner. The boards are drawn at 200% of print size, so a full page is 16.25 x 21 trim size. That is big, being that comics are usually drawn at 150% of print size, but who… READ MORE
July 15th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Whenever I meet someone who knows that I do work for MAD, I invariably get asked two questions. The first one is “Do they still publish that rag?”. The second is “How do you do the movie/TV parodies?”. Actually that question is usually phrased as a series of questions including “do you get to see the movie ahead of time?”, “does MAD provide you with pictures/copies of the film?”, “do you write the gags?”, and my personal favorite: “can you tell me where the bathroom is?” Over the next few days I will go through the process of doing a job for MAD from beginning… READ MORE
July 10th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I have gotten a lot of positive comments about a three page job I did in MAD #467 a month or so ago called “Rejected Characters from CARS”. The article consisted of 15 cars ala the Pixar film that didn’t make the cut as characters for the movie because they were deemed too “kid un-friendly”. The writer on the piece was Jacob Lambert. Most of those commenting pointed out that the art I did for this job was quite different from my usual ink-and-color work. Usually my work for MAD is penciled and inked on board in the traditional manner, then scanned in and colored… READ MORE
June 28th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The July issue of MAD will have a parody of the new Superman movie, written by Dick DeBartolo with art by me. Here are some images from the job to give you a little advance peek: Doing parodies in advance of the film’s release is not my favorite thing to do. I much prefer seeing the film first, as there is so much more to have fun with that way. Just working from a script and a few advance scenes, photos and trailers doesn’t give either myself or the writer the chance to lampoon the acting, pacing or so many of the elements that make… READ MORE
