I felt a nostalgic twinge in my gut the other day when I learned that Mad Magazine will cease publishing forever. I mean, I knew it had to come eventually as we continue on in this digital age. But Mad Magazine was such a part of me growing up, I find myself mourning as though one of my childhood best friends has passed away. Ever since I can remember, I was always a comic book reader and collector. I loved superheroes, Batman in particular. Big Batman fan. I also loved cartoons!. Big fan of Hanna Barbara cartoons. But that’s for another post.
As I got a little older, maybe nine or ten, I taught myself to draw comic book heroes just by copying the art in the books. Not with tracing paper, but just by observation. Of course, at first, I wasn’t very good at it. My drawings were of misshapen figures way out of proportion but, eventually, I actually got pretty good at it. I learned to draw lots of Batman and Superman images in their heroic poses, mimicking the style of those comic book artists. I would spend hours drawing and I didn’t even know that I was actually learning figure drawing, action, movement etc. I was just in a zone and loving the end result I put on paper. The real artists did the hard part, I was just copying their lines and style.
Then I discovered Mad Magazine. It was a whole new world for me in learning how to draw. The illustrations in Mad were not so heroic, much closer to cartoons, which I loved, than comic book art. It was another source of inspiration and I dove right in. Don Martin, Mort Drucker, Paul Coker, Jack Davis,Sergio Aragons`, Al Jaffee and Dave Berg were my favorites. Just incredible artists and illustrators who taught me how to draw. I learned so much from these greats and really didn’t know it. I didn’t know that I was actually learning figure drawing, caricature, exaggeration and more. I was just drawing for the love of it. And I would draw late into the night and early morning hours. I’m such a night owl anyway and late night hours drawing put me into a zone that was an incredible place to be. No noise, no distractions, just me, a pen or pencil, some paper and my latest issue of Mad Magazine.
I really wish I would have continued learning the craft as I got older. I did take art in high school but didn’t go any further with it in my teen years. I stopped my late night drawing sessions by then because I discovered another creative diversion: music! Learning how to play bass guitar and singing at the same time, and wanting to be in a rock band became my all consuming passion. But again, a whole other subject for another blog post.
R.I.P Mad Magazine. You will be so missed.