The Ink Stained Wretch #132: 5/1/24
Every Dog has His Sketch, MAD About Pop Tarts (maybe), and a new Studio Secret!
It's Wednesday, and we all know what that means… time for yet another of the klutzy, knavish, and Kafkaesque bunch of kvetching that are these newsletters! In this episode our sketch of the week really blows, we ask "what's the deal with that fake MAD cover?", and reveal a new studio secret... on with the 'Wretch!
Sketch o'the Week: Say Hello to my Little Friend!!
Click here if you are interested in this original sketch
It's another "famous movie moment" caricature sketch! This week features Al Pacino going full-on cocaine rage in "Scarface" in the "Say hello to my little friend!" scene. This is another good example of how, in the moment and with the expression/emotion being shown by the subject, a lot of the usual likeness landmarks of the subject have to be ignored. Typically when you think of Al Pacino, you think of heavy, sleepy eyelids, a long nose, a small mouth and very high and sharp cheekbones. This moment requires emphasis on the mouth and the gritted teeth, the squinted eyes, and angled back head. All that de-emphasizes the nose and eyelids. I still got the cheekbones though!
Will We Be MAD About Pop-Tarts?
Jerry Seinfeld's new movie "Unfrosted" had its red carpet debut last night out in LA. The film is a fictional original story of the "Pop-Tarts" breakfast pastry, and will be released for mass consumption on May 3rd on Netflix.
My sources can neither confirm or deny that a certain fictional MAD cover appeared in the film. I guess I'll have to wait until May 3rd to find out.
Yes, I did the art for another fake MAD cover prop ala "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", only this one was for "Unfrosted". This, of course, does not necessarily mean the cover prop will actually be seen in the film. I've done a number of projects for film and TV that never got seen or used in the end product. According to the conversations I had with Jerry and others involved there is supposed to be a scene where one of the characters is reading a copy of MAD with the prop cover seen above. That's why we did the cover, but we won't know if the scene made it into the film or even if the cover is very visible if it did. Jerry is a pretty big MAD fan, and he was a big part of the cover creation process, so maybe he'll have insisted it be shown.
This all happened exactly two years ago. Back in May of 2022 Seinfeld's production company reached out to MAD asking about having a special MAD cover prop for the film. MAD art director Suzy Hutchinson contacted me about doing the art. I pretended to check my calendar/schedule before enthusiastically agreeing to do it.
We had a Zoom meeting with Jerry and some of his team to brainstorm concepts. The idea was a cover making fun of NASA, which somehow fits into the storyline of the film. They wanted some kind of 60's era space scene with Alfred and a chimpanzee, a gag about being "airsick", and the use of the NASA logo rebranded "NAuSeA". I did a few concept pencils:
Jerry liked the "spacewalk" capsule sketch, particularly because of the fact that the chimp was trying to puke into an airsickness bag despite wearing a helmet. One of the concerns was making the "NAuSeA" logo read so you can simultaneously see both the NASA logo and the spoof version. It was actually Jerry who suggested Alfred could be painting the “U” and the “E” in like graffiti, and I suggested using a different color for the paint to make it read clearly both ways. I did a revised and partly colored comp for approval:
This was approved and I moved on to final art. Of course at the last second the shooting schedule for this scene was moved up, so I had to scramble to get the art done. Here’s the finished piece:
They wanted a 60's cover feel but in the Norman Mingo or Kelly Freas vein as opposed the Jack Davis feel I did for Tarantino. That's what I signed my name like this:
The production folks actually printed a prop magazine using this cover and a handful of faces of old MAD interior reprints, plus a 60's era back cover. They used that for filming but also printed up a bunch of extras. I have some of those floating around here somewhere but I can't find one right this moment.
We'll know on Friday if it's in the movie or not!
To The Bat-Studio, Old Chum!
I spend a LOT of time in my studio, and one thing I have learned is that if you want to do creative work the space you work in needs to be a happy, creative place. For those reasons, I like to add to the decor of my studio here and there with cool things that remind me of things I've done, places I've been, or stuff I love, or is just plain awesome.
I recently installed something in the studio that I've been wanting to do for decades but never could figure out how. This is now the entrance to my studio:
You pull this book forward to unlock the catch;
I got the bookcase/door as an unfinished but pre-hung unit and did the finishing and installation myself. I also built the decorative upper area with the crown-moulding because the standard top casing was nothing but a plain board. It took a few days and a lot of swearing, but now I have a secret entrance to my studio so no one can find me!
... except I just told all of you how to get in.
I should have rethought this.
Thanks! And thanks for being a subscriber!!
I agree!