Minor mystery of an Annapolis midshipman apparently reading Mad in 1955

by Mike Rhode

A colleague was looking through the US Naval Academy yearbook, The Lucky Bag 1959 and I noticed that a midshipman was reading Mad as a first year student (which is internally dated as being 1955, logically enough for a four year college). So I scanned it thinking that it was just another example of someone reading comics in an earlier day.

But what's odd is that this cover, showing Alfred E. Neumann walking away from a trash can labelled 'What me worry?" doesn't actually seem to be a  1955 MAD cover, based on the Grand Comics Database's cover gallery.

What it actually is though is the first issue of More Trash from Mad from 1958 with art by Kelly Freas. So, shockingly, somebody mis-attributed the date of the photograph in the yearbook.

cover from Grand Comics Database

MAD's Ficarra on his father

My father loved me enough to allow me to write jokes for a living [in print as My dad let me pursue my dream to write jokes]

By John Ficarra

Washington Post June 16 2019

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/my-father-loved-me-enough-to-allow-me-to-write-jokes-for-a-living/2019/05/30/6a5469da-7d99-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html

David Apatoff remembers Mad's Nick Meglin

NICK MEGLIN (1935-2018)

by David Apatoff

Illustration Art blog June 2, 2018

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2018/06/nick-meglin-1935-2018.html

Dec 15: Al Jaffee in town

Authors Out Loud: Mary-Lou Weisman & Al Jaffee Washington DCJCC

Mary-Lou Weissman - author, Al Jaffee- illustrator
Al Jaffee's Mad Life: A Biography
Thursday, December 15, 7:30 pm
$10, $8 Members/Seniors/Students

At 89, iconic American cartoonist Al Jaffee remains MAD magazine's oldest and most prolific contributor. Behind Jaffee's trademark dark humor lurks an even darker story of a childhood spent between two alien worlds, Lithuania and America. Mary-Lou Weisman tells the off-kilter life story of the man who countless fans know and love as the inventor of MAD's "fold-ins" and "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions."

Al Jaffee's Mad Life is illustrated by more than 65 original four-color original drawing by the master himself.

Mary-Lou Weisman is a journalist and author whose books include My Baby Boomer Baby Book, Traveling While Married, and Intensive Care: A Family Love Story.

Al Jaffee is an award-winning cartoonist whose work has appeared in more 440 issues of MAD magazine.

"Al Jaffee's Mad Life lays bare in harrowing yet often riotous detail how a Southern boy, twice uprooted by his mother to Lithuanian shtetls on the eve of World War II, grew up to become a tireless satirist for some of America's cheekier magazines."
-The New York Times

"It's an unnerving biography with a moving graphic novel hidden inside it."
-Art Spiegelman, author of MAUS

Partner: 16th Street J's Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery Off the Wall series

Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Address:
1529 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

If you'd like to attend this event you can purchase tickets online.

Dec 15: Al Jaffee & His Biographer at the Washington JCC

Authors Out Loud: Mary-Lou Weisman & Al Jaffee Washington DCJCC

   Mary-Lou Weissman - author, Al Jaffee- illustrator
Al Jaffee's Mad Life: A Biography
Thursday, December 15, 7:30 pm
$10, $8 Members/Seniors/Students

At 89, iconic American cartoonist Al Jaffee remains MAD magazine's oldest and most prolific contributor. Behind Jaffee's trademark dark humor lurks an even darker story of a childhood spent between two alien worlds, Lithuania and America. Mary-Lou Weisman tells the off-kilter life story of the man who countless fans know and love as the inventor of MAD's "fold-ins" and "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions."

Al Jaffee's Mad Life is illustrated by more than 65 original four-color original drawing by the master himself.

Mary-Lou Weisman is a journalist and author whose books include My Baby Boomer Baby Book, Traveling While Married, and Intensive Care: A Family Love Story.

Al Jaffee is an award-winning cartoonist whose work has appeared in more 440 issues of MAD magazine.

"Al Jaffee's Mad Life lays bare in harrowing yet often riotous detail how a Southern boy, twice uprooted by his mother to Lithuanian shtetls on the eve of World War II, grew up to become a tireless satirist for some of America's cheekier magazines."
-The New York Times

 "It's an unnerving biography with a moving graphic novel hidden inside it."
-Art Spiegelman, author of MAUS

Partner: 16th Street J's Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery Off the Wall series

 

Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Address:
1529 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

If you'd like to attend this event you can purchase tickets online.

Washington Post on Comics-Con

An article in print today -

Comic-Con in San Diego makes a heroic effort to party hearty
By Jen Chaney
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 24, 2010; C05

and five more stories on their Comic Riffs blog

COMIC-CON 2010: Legend STAN LEE talks 'geek power,' new movies -- & why he was embarrassed to be a comic-book writer
By Michael Cavna | July 23, 2010

COMIC-CON 2010: 'iCarly's' JERRY TRAINOR goes 'b-i-g' to voice the new cartoon 'T.U.F.F. Puppy'
By Michael Cavna | July 24, 2010

COMIC-CON 2010 Interviews: MAD magazine artists 'excited' about TV show for a new generation
By Michael Cavna | July 24, 2010

COMIC-CON 2010: 'Opus's' BERKELEY BREATHED talks pigs, penguins & the thrill of adapting 'Pete & Pickles' for animation
By Michael Cavna | July 23, 2010


COMIC-CON 2010: Rising OLIVIA MUNN has already inherited the geeks. Will she now inherit the Earth?
By Michael Cavna | July 23, 2010

Cartoonists on greeting cards

My grandmother died a few weeks ago at 96, and we've been going through her stuff. Nobody wanted all the greeting cards she saved since the 1940s, so I've been going through them. Here's a few that might interest this audience.


Miss Peach 1966 birthday card by Mell Lazarus.


1979 Hallmark birthday card by the great MAD cartoonist Paul Coker.

and the interior message:




This 1970-something Hallmark Valentine's Day card is by another MAD artists whose name is escaping me. Help?

And the interior message:



Finally here's a 1966 Christmas card from the Art Guild of Williamsburg with surprising good girl art and it's interior -

Comic Riffs interviews caricaturist Richmond

A new Congressional 'bobblehead' app for your iPhone? MAD artist says Apple won't bite
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog November 12, 2009

DC-based artist has new comic book out

Josh Eiserike wrote in today to mention his new comic. He said, I'm from DC (lived here most of my life). My best friend Mitch (also from DC, but he lives in Baltimore now) and I have a new book out and was wondering if you'd be interested in some kind of coverage.

The book is called "Assholes." We just got the second issue-- it's self-published, kind of a Wedding Crashers / Clerks-inappropriate-humor book. You can read the first issue and part of the second issue here, on my Web site. We'll have it at SPX, of course (stop by and say hi!).

A little about me: I'm the artist on Assholes, but I also write my own comics, including "Class of 99" (which I also drew) and "Anyone But Virginia" (which I only wrote). I do freelance writing for MAD Magazine, amongst other things.

Josh has a nice, webcomic type style that I assume he's doing on a computer. I'll be checking out his work online and at SPX and encourage you all to support our local cartoonists. And inappropriate humor, of course.

Comics in the World photographs - Rehoboth Beach, Deleware

I've got a folder on my harddrive labeled "Comics in the World" where I've shot pics of comics-related items in the wider world. Here's a selection from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.


Louie's Pizza interpreted a Mad magazine cover from June 1976 for decoration.



Disney's Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland on a car hood.


Dr. Seuss prints on sale in a gallery. Supposedly signed, they weren't. I'm sure these were printed after his death.





Simpson's Kooky Carnival pinball game.

Heroes Con Feldstein (and Friends) panel recording online

Al Feldstein and Ben Towle

I've uploaded Craig Fischer and Ben Towle's panel to the Internet Archive as an mp3. Click on the link to download it.

NOT THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS: EC COMICS PANEL
Part 2: A Chat With Al Feldstein (and Friends)

Ben Towle and Craig Fischer host an in-depth interview with Al Feldstein, EC artist and writer and MAD MAGAZINE editor extraordinaire! Along for the ride is a pair of celebrity funsters - FRED THE CLOWN and FIN FANG FOUR cartoonist Roger Langridge and CUL DE SAC comic stripper Richard Thompson - ready to roast and grill Feldstein about The Lighter Side of Editing America's #1 Humor Magazine!


Craig Fischer, Richard Thompson, Roger Langridge, Al Feldstein.