Mailbag
January 31st, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Whose work in MAD did you admire the most? A: That’s almost impossible to answer, there were so many cartoonists and creators that were among the best ever who contributed to MAD, and I admire every single one of them. Mort Drucker was the master of caricature and literally defined the movie/TV parody. Jack Davis was the greatest action/movement/physical cartoonist maybe ever. Wally Wood was a virtuoso of ink, light, and shadow, and could draw virtually anything from realism to humor better than anyone else. Will Elder‘s work was just plain hilarious to look at, and he was the “King of Chicken Fat” gags.… READ MORE
January 24th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I am somewhat surprised by the fact (as of right now), there are no superhero movies in your upcoming CLAPTRAP book. Don’t get me wrong, I love superhero movies and I don’t want to sway you guys in anyway, I’m just somewhat surprised. Any reason why not? A: In case anyone reading this is new to my blog, MAD writer Desmond Devlin and I successfully crowdfunded a book of traditional styles movie parodies we call CLAPTRAP, which we are diligently working on for release later this year. So far 11 of the 12 movies we are spoofing have been revealed, with one still to… READ MORE
January 17th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve been enjoying your posting your early MAD work lately, but I’m wondering if you are ever hesitant to share some of your really early art? I have seen you be very critical of your earlier work, so it’s a little surprising you are so willing to share it. Just wondering. A: Basically by the time I started working for MAD, I had reached a decent level of professionalism so I do not find any of it actively embarrassing. Sharing that stuff is no problem. However I am am still critical of it and see a lot of room for improvement in what I… READ MORE
January 10th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I love the movies you’ve chosen for your Claptrap book. I know your supporters got to choose a few, but I’m just curious what your thinking was behind your choices? A: When MAD writer Desmond Devlin and I decided to do CLAPTRAP, we were thinking we would do a mix of classic/cult classic movies and new releases. We were going to do about a 50-50 split between older and new films. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was always the first one we were going to do because we wanted to complete the MAD parody series of all the Star Wars films. We figured… READ MORE
January 3rd, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: After 55 years of experience reading MAD movie & TV spoofs, I have an ability to pinpoint pieces as a Mort Drucker, Joe Orlando, Angelo Torres, Sam Viviano, or Tom Richmond – but only by analyzing a given piece “as a whole”. Whereas, to a casual reader, that ability might be limited to picking out Don Martin by a drawn head, or an Antonio Prohias nose, or an Al Jaffee leap in the air. Is there anything specific about your illustration style that YOU might consider as reasonably-recognizable clues that a given piece has been drawn by Tom Richmond? A: That’s a good question. It… READ MORE
December 27th, 2020 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: In what avenues do you pick up freelance work? Do you have an agent, or just general social/web presence and word of mouth recommendations? Or do clients seek you out from your work at MAD? A: I have never had a “rep”, which is what illustrators call their agents. I’ve never been averse to having a rep, I’ve just never found myself hooked up with one. I have twice approached reps to see if they would be interested in working with me. One was a local Twin Cities rep whose name I cannot remember, but I think she was suggested to me by another… READ MORE
December 13th, 2020 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Could you always do whatever you wanted with MAD? Did you ever get suits threatened by some of the content holders for going too far? How often did the editor/publisher tell you to pull back on the content? I certainly could NOT to whatever I wanted with MAD, although I seldom had any gags or ideas I wanted to do cut. This was not because the MAD editors would let anything fly, but more because I quickly understood what they would allow and what they would not. I didn’t “push the envelope” very often since what they would allow was quite enough to do… READ MORE
December 6th, 2020 | Posted in Mailbag
Today’s mailbag is a series of questions about Desmond Devlin and my upcoming book of movie parodies: Q: Now that the project CLAPTRAP is funded, I’m curious to know when You and Des started the process? When did Desmond actually start writing the script for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker the spoof? A: Des and I first started talking about doing something like this back in the early summer of 2019, when MAD told us they were cutting new content in the magazine down to about 20% in each issue, and that movie/TV spoofs would NOT be part of any new content. We discussed… READ MORE
