Friends of THWAK - Dave Newton

I truly have been so fortunate to not only have met so may wonderful artists and writers but also to befriend many of them. One such individual is my buddy Dave Newton who I met about 10 years ago at the short lived Atlanta Comic Convention (not to be mistaken for the ongoing Atlanta Comic Con that takes place once a quarter at the same hotel we do the JOElanta Action Figure and Toy Show www.joelanta.com ). I was set up with fellow THWAK (comic book) publisher and editor and another great friend Buddy Finethy, promoting the brand new THWAK comic book. I had already decided that I was going to take the publication in a new direction and change it to a magazine format and was actively looking for new artists when this guy comes up to the table and asks me if I would like to see his portfolio. I was immediately taken aback by how talented he was. Great line work, humor based illustrations and he could do a continuity too!

Starting with THWAK #1 magazine Dave not only started contributing but also helped lay out the 1st 2 issues and 5th entirely, something I could not have done at the time. Dave's 1st piece was a spectacular homage to Movie Monsters. He captured so many terrific monsters from past to present. His love for the genre really came through. In one instance after his parody poster of the Wolfman and Frankenstein for our Monster themed Great Atlanta Toy Show back in 2005
Dave was asked to do some work for Atlanta's best known Halloween Haunted House "NetherWorld". Dave's love of the Creature also found him contributing to the horror film fanzine SCARY MONSTERS.

Dave would go on to contribute multi page stories for the whole run of THWAK , JOKESTER(even illustrating a piece written by underground comix legend Jay Lynch) and CRACKED magazines as well as edit the original art collectors publication CFAAPA. Dave's artwork and designs can be seen on hundreds of T-shirts around the country.

More Behind the Scenes at CRACKED

Here's a look at another page of original art that appeared in CRACKED magazine #363. As you can tell my original art was manipulated slightly to accommodate the gag. I wasn't crazy about having an ad smack dab in the middle of my page as this in my opinion was a big no no. The art should stand on its own unless it's a letters page or something similar to MAD's Fundalini pages or CRACKED's Backwash pages. I know of at least one prominent cartoonist that left the magazine due to this new direction the owner took.

Nick Cardy & Russ Heath

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have these two legends autograph some of their work when I met them both a few years back at Dragon Con here in Atlanta. Both artists have done plenty of work in a variety of genres.

As I've always focused on humor I was familiar with Nick Cardy's covers for CRAZY magazine, so it was natural for me to pick one of my favorites for him to sign.

Russ Heath worked on some of the early MAD comics back in the fifties. While perusing my CRACKED back issues I came across this excellent back cover of Smokey The Bear.

CRACKED Cover Reference #3

Here's the final installment of these CRACKED magazine cover reference posts. In the last official "Kulpa/Mega Media" issue and the last "Real" CRACKED magazine as a visual satirical humor magazine. This was without a doubt a huge honor for CRACKED as this cover was painted by non other than the legendary Sci Fi artist Kelly Freas, who had been MAD magazine's cover artist for many years during Norman Mingo's hiatus. Kelly also drew the covers to the 1st half dozen CRAZY magazines by Marvel which came out in the early '70's. With Marie Severin serving as Art Director and a brief appearance by Mort Drucker in issue #3, CRAZY had a certain MAD feel early on, changing quite dramatically with a new cover mascot "Obnoxio" towards the end of its run. My connection to this magazine comes in the great Kent Gamble who did all the CRAZY parodies from issue #20 throughout the end of the run with issue #94, with his cover contributions to The Journal of MADness, THWAK, and CRACKED, as well as some interiors his art continues to inspire me. Check out the THWAK Bonfire of Insanity Collection trade paperback. (Incidentally only a handful of this cover are left - a brand new painting will adorn the cover when the book hits Amazon later).

One can see some elements from both the EXTRA and TIME magazine covers. I thought that Kelly really captured the "goofiness" of both men. Overall a nice cover, and most probably the lat piece of published art that Kelly produced before his death early the following year on Jan 2nd 2005. For a full interview with Kelly Freas and how he came to work at MAD - check out the aforementioned THWAK trade paperback book available on this site.

CRACKED Cover Reference #1

It is a known fact that all artists use various forms of reference material in order to draw virtually anything. In many cases they will also borrow a panel layout and make it their own by adding additional elements. I myself have often gone to my cartoon book library in order to find an animal, scene angle or personality.

In the example above we can see how artist Jason Seiler (in a sample of his early work) http://jasonseilerillustration.blogspot.com/used this NEWSWEEK cover to craft his caricature of Arnold Schwarzeneggar.

Steve Tyler & Rick Nielsen Definately CRACKED!

Not much more to say here !?

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are CRACKED

THWAK trade paperback Page Rough

Here's another sneak peak behind the scenes of "The THWAK Bonfire of Insanity Collection". This premise rough by Mike Arnold http://www.arnomation.com/ ended up as "People to avoid in High School" on page 89. To see what the final page looked like you can order your copy directly from myself right here on this blog. Check it out on the right border.

Incidentally other similar features of Mike's were "People to avoid at the Hospital" (CRACKED #364) and "Diseases for the new millennium" (JOKESTER #1).

To see more examples of what's in the book go all the way back to my first couple of pages of this blog back in Feb & March.

All kinds of cool scientists' assistants read CRACKED

Beaker reads the final issue of CRACKED at DRAGON CON 2004.

CRACKED magazine concept art

Check out these two illustrations I did back in 2004. The one to the right with the dunce hat was a kind of a character study as I was trying to decide what the main illustration would be. The other piece was the final concept, taking place in a museum in the form of a parody of the famous statue of "The Thinker" called the "Unthinker". The script was submitted by veteran humor writer Andy Lamberti (CRAZY, CRACKED, WACKO and most recently THWAK) and was a list of what typically stands for DUMB.

As of yet it has never been published but you never know, one of these days?

CRACKED mazagine page

In late 2003 I joined CRACKED magazine as a co-editor with Scott Gosar and the year and a half that I was there was a great experience. During this time my biggest thrill were the many great artists and writers that we got to bring on board and work with. The editorial process can certainly be interesting.

This is originally what this finished page was to look like.