Concept art for new trade paperback

Here's a glimpse at the original pencils that artist Kent Gamble submitted based on characters I had initially requested. After reviewing them (even though they looked great!) and consulting with my buddy and fellow CRACKED editor Scott Gosar, a few changes were suggested. See if you can spot them all! Kent reworked them to produce yet another terrific watercolor painting with rich vibrant colors.

Order yours today at your comic store from this months' (Nov) Diamond Previews on page 288!

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.

Friends of THWAK - John Hett / The Journal of MADness

Here is a visual treat for ya, every single Journal of MADness cover including the elusive # 8 1/2 (incidentally I came up with the gag and did the painting of Alfred Powers) and the even more elusive #15 1/2 and #16. The only issue not pictured is a rare color reprint of issue #1.

These are truly a must read for any MAD fan. Jam packed with excellent interviews, features on MAD collectibles and Alfred sightings in Movies and TV and with excellent artwork by the magnificent Kent Gamble - each issue is a treat.

While Kent was painting these covers he was also doing covers for the long running MADpanic (now also no longer being published).

There has not been a full blown JOM since issue #15 which John Hett (editor & publisher) and I co-published as this was the JOM/THWAK double issue. Hopefully one day we'll see a trade paperback. Keep your fingers crossed!

As you can tell I had Sergio Aragones and Al Feldstein autograph various copies when I was lucky enough to meet them.

Friends of THWAK - Kent Gamble

In 2005 caricaturist Kent Gamble teamed up with Emmy Award winning sportscaster Len Berman and put out "And Nobody Got Hurt" http://www.amazon.com/Nobody-Got-Hurt-Weirdest-Wackiest/dp/0316010294/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240939887&sr=1-7 a fun collection of unusual sports facts. Illustrated throughout by Kent it is truly enjoyable light reading. Kent has also illustrated a few other books put out by Texas Tech University Press and his work has appeared in the New York Times, People, Golf Digest, CRAZY, Australian MAD, CRACKED, THWAK and many many more.

More of Kent's work can be seen in the brand new THWAK Bonfire of Insanity trade paperback where he contributed 4 brand new pages as well as the cover!

Stupid Cupid Gallery

Subscription illo THWAK #2 by me.

Table of contents illo for issue #1 above and new illo for the rest of the run below by me.

The only time Stupid Cupid appeared as a character inside the mag was in the SUPER ZEROES story by Dave Newton. Above that is Kit Livey's version from his "Relationships" piece in issue #5. To the right is Marty Hirchak's Stupid Cupid that appeared on an envelope sent to me.


Like all "good" humor magazines THWAK needed a mascot. This unusual character arose from one of our early brain storming/goofing off sessions when the comic book version was being conceived. The character was a combination of 3 sick minds -Buddy Finethy, Brad McGinty and Josh Latta (I guess I was the one goofing off!) and as a mischievous fellow he was generally up to no good. With a name like STUPID CUPID we weren't exactly setting the bar very high for him!

The above gallery shows some of the THWAK gang's interpretation of him. He has appeared on each issue - hammering the logo in the comic book (Buddy Finethy), shooting an arrow into an unsuspecting "napping" ancient Egyptian Mummy #1 (Marten Jallad), being hoisted above an unruly bunch of "Super Zeroes" #2 (Dave Newton), reading a bedtime story to some scary individuals #3 (Ben Boling), about to "host" a big bash for the gang of Humor mag mascots #4 (Kent Gamble), as a siloutte in the James Bond themed #5 (Dave Newton) and most recently as an instigator to a "little" bonfire in "The THWAK Bonfire of Insanity Collection"(Kent Gamble).

Initial pencil by Kent Gamble for Trade Paperback

Here's a look behind the scenes at the first pencil draft of the cover. Some minor changes were made, most notably our mascot Stupid Cupid in the front right ended up in more of a horizontal position as he devilishly grilled his hot dog over the roaring flame. The plume of smoke that serves as a backdrop to the THWAK logo was added during the layout process.

Kent Gamble's mastery at capturing likenesses has been serving him well ever since his work with CRAZY magazine starting with issue #20 through to it's final issue #94 in 1983. Kent also did work for WACKO, PARODY, CRACKED, Australian MAD and has been the cover artist for both The Journal of MADness as well as the now defunct MADpanic fanzine.

The crowd scene is made up of just a few of the many THWAK contributors and include (from left to right) Dave Newton, myself, Noel "Scotch" Anderson, Ben Boling, Mike Arnold, Scott Gosar, Buddy Finethy, Kit Lively, Kent Gamble and Marty Hirchak.