MAD was a long-running magazine that used cartooning and humor to make fun of American culture. The cartoonists at MAD were some of the best in the business. In my opinion much of their work still holds up as very strong even today.

Every issue included a comic strip parody of a blockbuster movie. If a movie was a hit MAD tried to work quickly to make a parody while it was still in theaters. A big challenge for the artists was finding visual reference to accurately draw from. In the days before the internet (or even VCR’s) you couldn’t just download a trailer or freeze-frame a clip from the movie. Instead, movie studios would release a few dozen publicity stills and promotional photos, and that was it. Such publicity material was often the only visual resource a MAD artist had to work from when trying to accurately retell a movie in comic strip form.

My absolute favorite movie growing up was SUPERMAN (1978). I must’ve watched it a million times and knew every scene by heart. Recently I purchased a copy of MAD magazine from 1978 (issue #208) with a parody of the movie drawn by the great Mort Drucker. I then found a Pinterest board featuring some vintage publicity stills from the movie and compared them with Drucker’s amazing drawings, which I snapped with my iPhone. It’s fascinating to see how he translated the photo reference into comic form, to look at where he used reference material and where he had to just make things up. One of the reasons Drucker is considered a master is that whether he was cribbing off of photo reference or inventing things on the fly, it all fits together seamlessly.

There is nothing wrong with using photo reference in your artwork. The challenge is to not use it as a crutch but instead to put your own spin on it. Instead of just copying what you see you should use the reference as a springboard for something organic and appealing and unique to you. Drucker mastered that skill. He used the photos to get the likeness correct and to approximate the costume and sets, but he wasn’t a slave to the reference. He had a strong enough grasp of anatomy, acting, and humor that he could improvise and add more life and energy to a pose whenever it was needed. He also loved to fill up dead spaces in the frame with tiny throw-away gags. They keep the compositions more visually interesting and help make everything feel more fun.

This is not an exhaustive list of examples but it gets the idea across. Enjoy!

I’ve posted a new design to my Redbubble print-on-demand store. It’s available on dozens of items including shirts, mugs, beach bags, dog mats, etc.

Most of my artwork is created digitally but every once in a while I draw on actual paper. Here’s a few recent images from my sketchbook:

If you like this I’ve got two sketchbook collections available in my store.

Although most of the work I do is very fun and cartoony, every once in a while (maybe a couple of times a year) I get hired to do courtroom sketching for big cases here in the Minneapolis area. Right now in St. Paul the trial is underway for the other three officers who were with Derek Chauvin when George Floyd died. They are accused of not doing enough to stop Chauvin.

The trial is expected to last about a month (ending in late February). I will be in court every day for the duration. Above is the first sketch I did on Day 1 featuring prosecution giving opening arguments. I will post more after the trial is over. In the mean time you can view some of my courtroom work over at my sister site courtroomsketches.com.

Announcing my second collection of personal doodles and warm-up drawings: SON OF SKETCHERCISE! I’ve culled through my sketchbooks and pulled together the best drawings from the past few years. The 46 page PDF contains almost 100 pieces of art, mostly from my personal work plus a few from client projects. Most of the drawings aren’t the funny kind from my Sketchbook Silliness webcomic (for those you need to get my book MOSTLY NONSENSE), though I did throw in a few rejected gag ideas. overall what it lacks in humor it makes up for in elbow grease.

Here’s a few sample pages (click to enlarge):

SON OF SKETCHERCISE! is now available to download in my store.

Last year I was hired by Hasbro to help out with a packaging illustration for a new toy in their Fur Real line, Snackin’ Sam the Bronto. He’s a cute plush dinosaur that comes with a plastic popsicle.

I was asked to do a tight pencil sketch of a prehistoric background, with the understanding that the sketch would then be given to one of their background artists to be painted in the Fur Real style. They also asked me to include one of their other dino characters, Munchin’ Rex, pushing an ice cream cart in the background, and a fold out picnic table in the foreground.

Here’s what I noodled up for them:

From there it went to another artist for painting. Now that Snackin’ Sam is in stores I finally get to see how it turned out. Looks like they decided to not use Munchin’ Rex in the background after all. But I like it: