One of the things I've been up to, lately: Later this year — November, I think — Watson-Guptill Books will issue the handsome volume you see above — Mad Art, billed as "A visual celebration of the art of MAD Magazine and the idiots who create it." I've interviewed darn near everyone who's alive who ever drew a substantial number of pics for America's foremost humor publication, plus a fair amount of writers, editors, production folks and a few widows. The thing is full of insights, biographical info, examples of MAD artistry, previously-unpublished sketches and preliminary art…stuff like that. There's a press release up at the publisher's website — you can get to it by clicking here — and that's about all I have to say about it right now. Oh, wait…how about that terrific cover by Richard Williams? Neat, huh?
This may be my year for books. In addition to four or five Groo paperbacks and the collection of my POV columns (ad down below), I'm currently dickering for a book about the state of the comedy business, expanded from a couple of pieces I wrote last year for Comics Buyer's Guide.
And yes — to mass-answer a question that arrives almost daily via e-mail — I am still producing (that is to say, we are still doing) Volume III of Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America. And I'm doing other things, mostly for TV, but I think I've just reached the Internet Bandwidth Limit for self-promotion. One more plug and the entire World Wide Web crashes…