Today's Guests: Legendary MAD Magazine and Humbug! cartoonists Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth. My mother bought me my first MAD magazine off the newsstand at a Stop & Shop supermarket in 1969. The cover featured a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid parody that I believe was drawn by Jack Davis. I read... Continue Reading →
Plop! Plop! Really weird, it’s the work of Basil Wolverton! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: Monte Wolverton, author, The Wolverton Bible Cartoonist Basil Wolverton was known for his grotesque drawings, fantastically odd creatures, spaghetti-like hair, smoothly sculpted caricatures and insanely detailed crosshatching. His career in the golden age of comic books lasted from 1938 until 1952, after which his illustrations and caricatures extended into such publications as... Continue Reading →
African-American editorial cartoonists go ’round the table! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guests: Tim Jackson, David G. Brown, Ron Rogers, Barbara Brandon-Croft, Dr. Yaounde Olu, editorial cartoonists These are days when the rules are being rewritten by the hour, a time when the old ways seem quaint and antiquated, a period in history when perhaps we can no longer rely upon history to guide the future.... Continue Reading →
Mark Wheatley, Robert Tinnell take on Lone Justice comics! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Artist Mark Wheatley and writer Robert Tinnell are two good reasons that comic book readers are following the crowds to online media iterations of the 20th century comic panels. Together they produced last year’s Harvey-nominated webcomic EZ Street. Separately, you’ll recognized Wheatley’s work from Hammer of the Gods, Black Hood, Frankenstein Mobster and Mars.... Continue Reading →
Legendary cartoonist Joe Kubert’s life rocks biography! PODCAST INTERVIEW
(NOTE: I'm sad to update this 2009 interview with the news that author and comics historian Bill Schelly passed away on September 12 2019. He was 67, You can read a little more about Bill in this blog post by Mark Evanier. Rest in piece, Bill. Thanks for gathering so much history for all... Continue Reading →
Cartoonist Patrick McDonnell loves his Mutts and so do we! PODCAST INTERVIEW
If you want to see daily comic strips in their classic form, the place I’d steer you is cartoonist Patrick McDonnell’s “Mutts.” Finely drawn, acerbic in voice yet sweet by nature, gentle in image yet often violent in humor, “Mutts” is a throwback to the earliest days of the art form, when a brick... Continue Reading →
Mike Gold puts ComicMix.com on digital frontier! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Remember when convenience stores had spinning racks with signs at the top that shouted, “Hey, Kid! Comics!”? Actually, I barely remember that myself, it’s been so long. Finding comic books hasn’t been easy since the late 1970s. And the comic book companies don’t even make the real dough from the so-called 32-page “pamphlets” anymore.... Continue Reading →
Every day, cartoonist Mike Lynch hears, ‘Hey Kids! Comics!’ PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: Mike Lynch, cartoonist. Regular Mr. Media listeners know that I have a special place in my heart for cartoonists and comics people. I admire their creativity and talent, of course, but I also envy their ability to wake up every day and invent a living from whole cloth. And probably no one... Continue Reading →
Cartoonist Clay Bennett draws audio pictures for Mr. Media! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Of the nine books I’ve written, it just occurred to me that the first and last have Pulitzer Prize connections—not for my work, unfortunately, but still… The last was Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, a biography of the American master artist and writer, which featured an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon.... Continue Reading →
Got Zits? Got Baby Blues? Jerry Scott is at center of both! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Rick Kirkman, comic strip co-creators, "Zits," "Baby Blues" Not too surprisingly, when my son Charlie was born, it didn’t take long for me to see the humor in the “Baby Blues” comic strip by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. It was so relatable! And when Charlie hit 6 or 7,... Continue Reading →