2025? Already??

Mad Documentary, Book release stuff, and some presidential drawing!

Remember 2024? I do… though it’s fading fast…

Right off the top, a quick note for paid subscribers: once you schlog through all the drivel, there’s a special message just for you at the bottom of this post…

Aside from being my 51st consecutive year of continuing my streak of not having seen either The Big Lebowski OR The Princess Bride, it was also a big year for the legacy of Mad Magazine.

One particular event I’ve been eagerly anticipating was a long gestating behemoth of an endeavor, one that’s finally gotten to see the light of day. After over a decade in the making, Filmmaker/Director Alan Bernstein’s exhaustively researched passion project, the documentary When We Went MAD! The Unauthorized Story of Mad Magazine has been unleashed into the wild. Well, sort of.

This project was funded over on Kickstarter, way back on January 11, 2013. I’m not entirely sure certain if that’s when it was essentially greenlit, or just when the pledges started coming in, but whatever; as of this writing, we’re creeping up on 12 years that this towering project has taken. And it’s not even the Alan’s day job!

The story about how this feature finally came to fruition is way too long for one post, and frankly that tale is worthy of a documentary of its own, ala Hearts of Darkness.

(Ok, that may be overreaching.)

Thus began a decade plus of navigating the ups and downs of what I can only imagine were mind-numbingly endless unforeseen obstacles, conflicting egos, answers that lead to more questions, all the trials and tribulations that could and would go into trying to fit what would end up being 70+ years of history into a roughly 2 hour feature.

To quote my pal Tom Richmond’s (much better and more thorough) take on all this:

Working nights and on his days off on the film, it was long road for Alan and the documentary, not just in getting the film together but navigating the pitfalls of copyright clearance, securing footage from other sources, and other challenges in creating a full length movie.

Even though I’m still mad I didn’t come up with the best name ever before he did, get the whole scoop over at Tom’s fantastic Substack, the Ink Stained Wretch.

The movie premiered in NYC on August 22nd 2024 at the Center for Jewish History (see highlights here). After that was the official premiere, November 14th in Detroit. I say official because that’s Alan’s hometown. Local boy done good!

I know what you’re thinking: given the trajectory of these two premieres, common sense would dictate that MY hometown of Racine, WI would be the obvious next (nay, final?) stop on the grand WWWM! world premiere tour. Regretfully, I have been informed that this is not to be.

Doesn’t add up.

To follow future updates on When We Went Mad!, head over to it’s Facebook page by clicking here…

There’s also Alan’s personal WWWM! site here.

(Note- as if this writing, there seems to be an issue with what I’m assuming is the site’s CSS coding or something, causing window issues. I’m quite sure it’s a problem with my browser. Safari loves to throw some passive aggressive shade my way when I spend too long on these posts, or when I try to blame it for someone else’s page’s window issues.

What makes this movie even cooler for me is that I got to be a part of it.

I’ll try to relay this as best I can, but until I actual see the film, it’s still kind of a mystery to me…so chances are pretty certain I may have a fact or two mixed up. That said, to the best of my knowledge, it goes something like this: as in true documentary fashion, there’s more than quite a few cutaways to various talking head interviewees (have I mentioned the sheer number of interviews collected for this movie? Yah? Oh. Good!), each needing some sort of introductory graphic/lower third/whatever to indicate who they are and how they fit in to the history being presented. Well, to make things interesting, what introduces each talking head is a graphic to indicate not only their name and how they fit in, but also a caricature or cartoon drawn by a official member of the Usual Gang of Idiots**. Indeed, quite a few past and present Mad artists agreed to take part, including myself*.

*It should be assumed by all that last little nugget of information, and the whole WWWM! final grand premiere NOT culminating in the Historic Downtown Tourist and Financial District of beautiful Racine, WI is nothing more than a bizarre coincidence.

**Anyone who’s contributed to the publication of Mad Magazine is considered a member of a questionably prestigious club, The Usual Gang of Idiots. Membership includes all of the adoration, pomp and circumstance one would expect from being a part of something as classy as Mad, along with a monogramed solid gold Mad emblazoned decoder ring that can only be removed during the 43 Man Squamish finals and semifinals.

The term first(?) appeared in the masthead of the magazine as a goofy way to acknowledge the contributors to that issue. Not coincidentally, it also saved tens of dollars in ink over the decades not having to actually name every single contributor to that issue! Talk about a Win-Win! Though generally considered mainly the freelance artists and writers, the various staff editors, art directors, copyrighters, etc. throughout the years also consider that title a badge of honor. The cool ones, anyway.

Unfortunately, the questionable decision was made to approach only living members of the UGOI to produce these various caricatures and cartoons. I’m sure this glaring omission will be pointed out numerous times over at RottenTomatoes.

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Back to the living- as it turns out, I actually drew quite a few of these caricatures peppered throughout the film. It’s been a while since I did them, but I think I ended up doing something like 15 or 18 drawings in all. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a career highlight, for sure!

Here’s a video of me inking one of these caricatures. Go put a pot of coffee on…

An extra unexpected bonus came later on when the movie poster was released…

I could be mistaken, but to the best of my knowledge, none of those people named at the bottom have EVER drawn a single panel of art in Mad. These guys really need to check their sources.

…which incorporates of a LOT (maybe all?) of these caricatures! That wasn’t the original plan, so that was a fun treat to see.

Not to be nit-picky, but I felt strongly that there really should be some representation of Alfred E. Neuman on the poster… somewhere…I mean, come on!

Alan has insisted repeatedly that he IS there, but I looked. I’m not buying it.

Hey-the filmmakers had a lot on their plate, I understand how something like that could fall between the cracks. Moving on….

Anyway, quite of few of caricatures are included in that poster, and trust me, I’m in good company. Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

I’m gonna have to send Alan a Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned Flavored Kringle or something equally fancy. Works every time.

There’s no news yet as to when & where the movie will be available for the general consumption, although there is some *ahem* idle chatter around the watercooler about a certain streaming service that may or may not be angling to pick it up sometime soon… but… aw, everybody hates a spoiler, AMIRIGHT?

Now Museum, Now You Don’t

Now’s as good a time as any for me to be the last to inform the world about the Mad exhibit that was, at the Norman Rockwell Museum over in beautiful Stockbridge, MA, What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine.

If you’re reading this, and there’s a good chance that you are, I’d venture the odds are middling to adequate you’ve seen more than a fair share of articles, posts & blurbs and interviews from that show’s opening by the numerous members of the Usual Gang of Idiots*** in attendance. (Those idiots really get around!)

*** Look up.

But, just in case you’re one of the few who hadn’t gotten wind about this show (or, more likely, you’re my mom and it hasn’t come up because Mad talk isn’t allowed on days that end in 'Y’ anymore), here’s the museum’s rundown of the now closed exhibit.

Supposedly the goal is for this to be a travelling museum show. I hope that’s the case, though I won’t be holding my breath. But, even if a portion of this show is allowed to be included in some sort of touring exhibit, that would be a seriously awesome show to go see.

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Setting a New President for Humor in Literature

No no no, it’s not what you think!

Every now and then a job falls into my lap that’s just plain fun and cool to do. Not to imply that I’d ever be ungrateful for any job, but lets face it, some are more fun than others.

I recently wrapped one of these just before Christmas- a fun, quirky, old fashioned book cover. Not only that, but a humorous book cover! With *egads!* caricatures, to boot! From where I’m sitting, anyway, that’s something you don’t see nearly as much these days. It used to be the humor illustrators I paid attention to at way to young an age, the likes of Jack Davis, Bruce Stark, Jack Rickard, Robert Grossman, etc etc, in addition to always being busy with commissions for record covers, magazines, newspaper ads, etc, were always at least reasonably well represented on bookstore shelves.

To that end, when a job comes in today that current trends, technological advances, increasingly milquetoast Art Directors, whatever might render said job antiquated (for lack of a better, less offensive word), it’s kind of refreshing!

And continuing with the theme of the day, ‘overthinking things’, somehow, in some weird way it almost seems like keeping the torch of a longstanding industry lit to continue on.

Where was I. Oh yeah. This job was for an author I’d previously done a cover for a few years ago:

I did this cover in 2020. This was a reprinting of the original from, you guessed it, 2017. (For all you keeping score, this was drawn and painted traditionally: pen & ink on Strathmore 400 series illustration board, colored with watercolors, colored ink, and whatever else I had lying around. It was the pandemic. I had time to experiment!)

Jobs like these always keep things interesting. Out of the blue, unrelated to anything else I’m working on, at least on the surface, but whoever got to make the call chose me because they saw what I did somewhere else and thought I’d be a good fit for what they were putting together. Kind of the ideal scenario.

This one’s a political satire- a new POTUS, in the White House, inhabited by, you guessed it, previous long dead inhabitants!

The cover here called for the main character (in reverse), and three main ex-POTUS’s in the story, inside the Oval Office, off to the side of The Resolute Desk. If I wasn’t overly anxious to knock this post out and get on with more crucial matters, like, sleep, I’d love to go on and on about the perils of putting too much detail into part of an illustration (in this case, the Desk), only to have it almost completely obscured in the final print. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I’ve fallen prey to that trap. But trust me, that Resolute Desk there is spot on, and awesome. I wish Jefferson was a little more transparent….

With that then, here’s my contribution to the final cover to the upcoming book, POTUSGEISTS, written by William Worsley, due 1Q 2025:

This was a lot of fun to do. I don’t get calls to do caricature much, so when they do come in, I really like to sink my teeth in.

For the art curious, the figures here are all drawn traditionally- pen & ink on board. All are separate, then scanned in, colored and assembled digitally. That Oval Office background is all digital.

Here’s what ol’ Andrew Jackson looks like when he’s merely ink on paper.

Stay tuned… Below the paywall a little down is a video I shot of me inking good ol’ Andy Jackson here. It’s a humdinger….

This is the scan of the final inked art. I knew I’d be digitally coloring (because I can see the future), so I obviously wasn’t too concerned with cleaning up those ol runaway pencil lines. Plus, I always kinda like a little of the sketch to remain. To me it always added a little more kinetic energy. That, or I’m just too lazy to do all that erasing.

For the inks, I am constantly reminding myself to loosen up & move on, so to speak. I’m a really heavy handed inker, and it shows. Therefore, the more I forget to pay attention and work on that, the more stiff and lifeless things tend to get.

I like to think I’m getting better at easing up, and for sure I’m enjoying the drawing aspect of inking more and more (as opposed to simply tracing lines I’ve already drawn in pencil- big difference). But, to me, it ain’t like riding a bike. If I don’t ink for a while, it takes me quite a bit to ‘relearn’ it. It’s always worth it- but it’s a discipline I continue to work at and struggle with.

I don’t think there’ll ever come a day when I don’t view all this stuff as a student. I hope that’s good.

Here’s the same drawing, in living color!

Photoshop color, minimal layers, like always. I keep that part as simple as possible.

After the other POTUS, the main character and the background were done, I cobbled them together in the layout above, futzed with the opacity of the three main dudes to drive the point home that they’re ghosts (SPOILER!!), and that was that! Anxious to see the title and graphic treatment. I’ll share that here when I can.

For those who’ve made the questionable decision to become a paid subscriber, here’s a little process video of the inking process:

After that, please stick around to the very end of this post for a moderately important message…