Illustrator extraordinaire Drew Friedman‘s blog is always worth a visit, but he just posted a particularly fantastic story about a visit he made to the offices of MAD Magazine . . . in 1974 at age 15! Complete with pictures, this is the way a visit to the MAD offices should always unfold. Do yourself a favor and go read it. READ MORE
Sitting at Charles Schulz’s drawing board The Lovely Anna and I are on the way back from the west coast to Minnesota (the no coast) after a fun visit to San Francisco, Santa Rosa and the Sonoma wine country. We have family in this area so it’s always a treat to come out to see them and this beautiful part of the country. While there I did a few speaking engagements and a workshop on caricature at the Cartoon art Museum and the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. At the Schulz museum, I did an adult class on drawing caricatures, then a presentation… READ MORE
Q: I just have a couple of quick questions for you. How big do you draw your art? When you do a piece for MAD, like a two page spread for instance, how big is the original drawing? You manage to get such a lot of detail in, so I can only imagine that it would be drawn quite big. ¬¨‚Ć Lastly, do you recommend always drawing big when practicing? A: I usually do my non-MAD illustration work at 150% of whatever the print size is going to be, which is an unwritten traditional standard in illustration. So, a full page magazine illustration (given an… READ MORE
MAD‘s very own Spy vs. Spy debuted recently in the App Store for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iTouch. It’s been wildly successful and as been on-and-off the number one game in the app store, much to the chagrin of Perry. It’s an update of the original game that was made for the Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari. I remember having that game for the Atari, circa 1984 or so. This one is designed for the awesome retina screen of the Apple devices, but also includes an 8-bit “retro mode” so you can go back in time and enjoy the wonderfully clunky, boxy squares of… READ MORE
Q: When doing your movie and TV parodies, and occasional other stuff for MAD, how closely do you work with the writers on a given piece? A: This question was actually put to me at the MAD panel at Comic-Con, and I thought it would be a good one to answer here in the Sunday Mailbag. The answer is: I don’t directly work with the writers at all, ever. Any questions or concerns I have with the script I take to MAD art director Sam Viviano, who will go to the writer if it’s something he cannot answer and then relay the response to me.… READ MORE
Yesterday the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the 2012 nominees for Primetime Emmys, and in a spectacular victory for good, old-fashioned bribery, the MAD animated show on the Cartoon Network is nominated for Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program! I was stunned and confused by this, until I saw the episode that was nominated was one I did not work on . . . so then it made perfect sense. Congrats to Kevin Schinick, Mark Marek, Peter Giradi and all the people that have made MAD such a great and popular show! READ MORE
On sale everywhere . . . RIGHT NOW! “MAD Presents BATMAN” Special (September 2012) Cover Mark Fredrickson Batboy and Rubin! (Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood) A MAD Look at Batman!(Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Colors: Carl Peterson) MAD #105 Batman Cover (Norman Mingo) Bats-Man (Lou Silverstone, Mort Drucker) MAD #289 Batman Cover (Richard Williams) Battyman (Stan Hart, Mort Drucker) MAD #314 Batman Returns Cover (Mort Drucker) Buttman Returns (Stan Hart, Mort Drucker) MAD #337 Batman Forever Cover (Mort Drucker) Buttman Fershlugginer (Dick DeBartolo, Mort Drucker) MAD #359 Batman and Robin Covers (Mort Drucker) Buttman & Rubbin’ (Arnie Kogen, Mort Drucker) Batman and Robin Outtake #621: The Kiss (Duck Edwing,… READ MORE
Not much to report, really. Comic-Con is always hectic but this year I saw and participated in less than usual because I was trying to get work done on the last of MAD‘s parody of “The Avengers”, with mixed results. I did not have my own booth this year like I did last, frankly because the Comic-Con people are not very good at informing their vendors how to do things like reserve their booth spaces for the next year.¬¨‚Ć First, I found out after the fact that had I paid my 2012 booth fee before the last day of last year’s Comic-Con, I would have… READ MORE
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