MADness #31: Queer Eye!

It’s yet another electrifying episode of the chronologial crawl through my work at MAD magazine. This week is a look at the parody of the TV show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” (with the original cast) from MAD #443, July 2004.

This feature was my the first collaboration between me and former MAD editor Dave Croatto. I would go on to illustrate on other MAD parody written by Dave just a few issues later, but years later he and I would team up to do two MAD children’s book parody books, Goodnight Batcave and Superman and the Miserable, Rotten, No Fun, Really Bad Day.

Once again when doing one of these “reality” shows featuring a real person as the subject of whatever activity the show is centered around, I used a real person for the caricatures. In this case “Guy Johnson” is a fellow caricaturist named James Hungaski, who at the time was managing one of my theme park operations in Minnesota.

I thought Dave’s script was really good making fun of the show itself and its tropes, yet not doing any “gay bashing” humor. Yes, of course he makes fun of the over-the-top antics of star Carson Kressley, which frankly borderline on a stereotype caricature (Kressley himself, I mean), and that the show seems to go overboard with the “Hey We’re GAY!” message at times, but that’s all part of the show. If anything he mocks the stereotypical straight guy, which is another thing the show itself does.

Sorry, no pencil sketches on this one. They are missing for some reason.

Toon in next week for another vomit-inducing thrill ride of an episode, when we look at the first piece I did using using my brand new Wacom Cintiq!