MAD Magazine
Al Jaffee’s illustrated biography
O
ne of Mad Magazine‘s best-known creators, Al Jaffee, is taking on the auspicious project of chronicling his own life. In the upcoming book Al Jaffee’s Mad Life, Jaffee joins writer Mary-Lou Wiseman to tell the story of the award-winning cartoonist — now 89 years old — who worked in several capacities at Mad, including the popular fold-ins.
Al Jaffee’s Mad Life chronicles the octogenarian’s start as a child in Lithuania, his family’s escape from the Third Reich, and his heights working for Mad Magazine. The book, which will include 65 new illustrations be Jaffee, is scheduled to come out in October.
In addition to the book, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is raising funds by way of Kickstarter for an Al Jaffee exhibit curated by Danny Fingeroth and Arye Kaplan. See more on that here.
And hey, Jaffee has a Facebook page!
- September 2, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Arrant
SDCC ’10 | Highlights of Saturday’s comics programming
Comic-Con International
Like clockwork, Comic-Con organizers have released the schedule for the third day of the convention, Saturday, July 24.
Below you’ll find highlights of the comics-related programming, ranging from movie panels for Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern and Marvel’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger to Joe Quesada’s traditional “Cup O’ Joe” and “Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour vs. The Fans.”
The full programming schedule for Saturday can be found here.
10 to 11 a.m. Spotlight on Carla Speed McNeil — Comic-Con special guest Carla Speed McNeil is best known for her creator-owned title Finder. A few years back, Carla took new stories of Finder to the Internet, and the result was an Eisner Award for best webcomic of 2008 and a new series of reprints from Dark Horse. Carla talks about her work and what’s next in this Spotlight panel. Room 3
10 to 11 a.m. The Black Panel 2010 — This year’s Black Panel will be one for the ages. The focus will be on empowerment, education, real-world networking, and finally but never last, fun. The panelists include entertainment attorney Darrel Miller, novelist Nnedi Okorafor, artist Denys Cowan and writer/producer/director Reggie Hudlin, with moderator Michael Davis. Once they answer life’s burning questions, they’ll chill with a salute and Q&A from the audience with actor/writer/director Bill Duke. As always, surprise guests who will rock your world. Room 5AB
10 to 11 a.m. Marvel Comics Writers Unite! — The third in Comic-Con’s series of “Year of the Writer/Comics Writers Unite!” panels focuses on Marvel Comics and includes Comic-Con special guests Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man, Thor) and Chris Claremont (X-Men Forever, X-Women) in a discussion with writer Mark Waid (Amazing Spider-Man, Irredeemable). Room 6DE
- July 10, 2010 @ 03:18 PM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Todd McFarlane
Legal | A federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin, will hear arguments today regarding Neil Gaiman’s claim that Todd McFarlane owes him money for his copyright interests in three characters — Dark Ages Spawn, Domina and Tiffany — that he says are derivatives of their earlier creations Medieval Spawn, Angela and Count Nicholas Cogliostro.
“Our view is McFarlane just took some of the characters Neil was a co-creator of and just gave them different names,” Gaiman’s attorney Allen Arntsen told The Associated Press. “It’s a matter of principle.” In court filings, McFarlane attorney James Alex Grimsley denied Gaiman has any rights to the three additional characters, claiming they’re not based on the earlier creations. [The Associated Press]
- June 14, 2010 @ 07:20 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics College | Harvey Kurtzman
Mad Archives Vol. 2
Comics College is a monthly feature where we provide an introductory guide to some of the comics medium’s most important auteurs and offer our best educated suggestions on how to become familiar with their body of work.
Today it’s time (long pat time actually) to take a look at one of the most influential and undisputed masters of the comics medium, Harvey Kurtzman.
- May 28, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
MAD Magazine moves to bimonthly schedule in June
MAD #503
MAD Magazine will shift from a quarterly to a bimonthly schedule beginning with June’s Issue 504, according to a letter sent to contributors by Editor John Ficarra.
“Bimonthly isn’t the same as monthly,” cartoonist and MAD contributor Tom Richmond wrote this morning, “but it beats quarterly by exactly 50%!”
The venerable humor magazine moved from a monthly to a quarterly schedule in April 2009 following massive cutbacks at parent company Warner Bros. that resulted in the elimination of 800 jobs worldwide, including positions at DC Comics. MAD Kids and MAD Classics were axed in the belt-tightening.
“I have no idea what’s behind the decision,” cartoonist Evan Dorkin wrote today on his blog, “but it’s welcome news, and I’m sure a number of the ‘gang of usual idiots’ will be pleased to have more assignments after a meager year’s run. As a smaller fish in the gang who mostly does occasional small spot illo gigs, I wasn’t really affected by the changeover. But I felt badly for the ‘usual gangsters’ who likely depended on the steadiness of the monthly schedule, losing eight issues of material had to hurt some people.”
- March 12, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Your video of the day: In the studio with Mort Drucker
Here’s a trailer for a new interview series with great cartoonists, with the famous Mad magazine artist talking shop. (via)
- January 5, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Your video of the day: The animated Don Martin
Somehow it just seems all the more horrifying once you add motion, doesn’t it? (via)
- December 29, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by Chris Mautner
What Are You Reading?
Ninja
Welcome to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Sean T. Collins, who should be no stranger to most of you as he’s been guestblogging with us all week while JK Parkin was on vacation.
To find out what Sean and the rest of us have been reading this week, just click on the link below …
- September 6, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A publishing news round-up
• Ladies and gentlemen, Dwayne McDuffie has an announcement:
The very first Milestone comic will finally be collected, 17 years after its original publication. HARDWARE: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE will reprint Hardware #1-8, featuring the character’s origin, and first adventure. The Direct Market (comic book store) release date hasn’t been announced yet, but it tends to be about a month earlier than in the general market.
• In other news, Archaia announced plans to start a new $9.95 hardcover line of books, where one graphic novel will be released each quarter at that low price. The plan kicks off in August with the release of The Engineer: Konstrukt.
• Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson says the Norewegian artist Jason’s next project will be a repackaging of his previous books in the new Low Moon format. The first book, Almost Silent, will collect You Can’t Get There From Here, The Living and the Dead, Tell Me Something and Meow Baby! The next book, What I Did, will tentatively collect The Iron Wagon, Shhhhh and Hey Wait. Thompson also adds that Jason is working on a new graphic novel, Werewolves of Montpellier, which will be out in summer of 2010.
- June 30, 2009 @ 08:55 AM by Chris Mautner
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A publishing news round-up
Pelu vol. 1
* Warren Ellis hinted at two upcoming comics projects over on his blog: Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindary Island, which will be published by Avatar Press with art by Raulo Caseres; and Supergod, about which little is revealed beyond the title.
* The Same Hat guys reveal that Last Gasp will be publishing a new manga by Junko Mizuno this fall, entitled Little Fluffy Gigolo PELU Vol. 1. Adults only kids.
* Johanna Draper Carlson drops the news that the 600th issue of Archie will have him marrying Veronica in one of those “what will the future hold” type dealies. Apparently it’s part one of a six-part story.
* Speaking of big milestones, Evan Dorkin says the 500th issue of Mad Magazine is out on newsstands now, which is kind of amazing — to me at any rate.
* Percy Gloom author Cathy Malkasian will publish her follow-up book, Temperance, through Fantagraphics this fall.
* AdHouse pulls back the curtain on Process Recess 3, the third book of art by James Jean.
* Want to know what the cover to that upcoming collection of John Stanley’s Nancy stories looks like? Click here.
- April 27, 2009 @ 10:37 AM by Chris Mautner
Food or Comics | MAD reactions, and more
MAD #46 (April 1959)
• MAD cartoonist Tom Richmond reacts to yesterday’s news about cutbacks at the legendary humor magazine, which include layoffs, a move to quarterly release, and the elimination of MAD Kids and MAD Classics. “Obviously this is very sad news,” Richmond writes on his blog. “I’m a little too busy right now to write much about it, but needess to say I’ll be having a lot more free time in the future for blogging.”
• Cartoonist Evan Dorkin, who also contributes to MAD, wonders how the changes will affect free-lancers: “… I wasn’t aware of how bad magazine distribution has become, and a venerable magazine like Mad, a comic but in some ways never thought of as a comic, well, seeing it take a gutshot like this shakes one up. Or at least me. There are people who live off their Mad income, we’re not one of those, and I can see this affecting a lot of freelancers who relied on 12 issues of material for their income.”
• Mark Evanier, who wrote a book on the history of MAD, assures us that the cuts aren’t the beginning of the end for the magazine: “MAD will not go away. It’s too valuable a brand name to ever disappear. [...] Its new configuration is not a long-range plan … and maybe that long-range plan, whenever they arrive at it, will restore MAD to its former glory in some venue.”
• With The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press reducing home delivery to just three days a week beginning in March, some readers are wondering how they’ll get their daily dose of funnies. It turns out the comics section will be included in the newspapers’ e-edition, available to subscribers in digital or PDF formats.
• While some manga publishers have been laying off staff, or shutting down completely, VIZ Media has just added an RSS feed devoted to job openings.
• This exchange this morning on Twitter between Templar, Arizona, creator Spike and Anders Loves Maria creator Rene Engström seems to sum up the general sentiment of the past few weeks:
Spike: “Young American Comics going out of business, Diamond upping the benchmark, MAD Magazine going quarterly. Has there been any GOOD comic news?”
Engström: “Any good PRINT comic news you mean.”
- January 24, 2009 @ 08:23 AM by Kevin Melrose
Food or Comics | DC Comics and Diamond make cuts
Bob Schreck
• As was noted on CBR’s front page, Heidi MacDonald reports that DC Comics has laid off well-respected Senior Editor Bob Schreck, Subscriptions Manager Christine Sawicki, and several staff members at MAD magazine.
The layoffs are part of massive cutbacks by parent company Warner Bros. Entertainment that will result in the elimination of some 800 jobs worldwide. Until word of the layoffs trickled out today, it had been unclear whether DC Comics would be part of the belt-tightening.
Schreck is an industry veteran who worked at Comico and Dark Horse before co-founding Oni Press with Joe Nozemack in 1997. At DC, Schreck oversaw the Batman line, and later the successful All-Star books.
• According to Newsrama, DC Comics’ MAD magazine will move to a quarterly schedule in April, and will cease publication of MAD Kids and MAD Classics.
• Heidi MacDonald also reports that Diamond Comic Distributors laid off 13 employees on Thursday, including the managing editor and designer for the recently canceled Diamond Dialog magazine. A wage reduction for management and staff also was announced.
- January 23, 2009 @ 11:57 AM by Kevin Melrose