claptrap for those who are missing mad movie parodies

 

A long, long time ago I can still remember how the humor used to make me smile.

Mad Magazine was an institution when I was a kid, and there was a long stretch of time that I fervently looked forward to each new issue. And one of my favorite features was the movie parody. So it's kind of amusing that I would, in college, become friends with Desmond Devlin who would become one of Mad's most prolific writers -- both in general and of the movie parodies in particular. And, in fact, he helped me make my first (and, sadly, only) sale to Mad.

Des and I were friends for decades. We celebrated life's milestones. We consoled each other upon losses. And nobody ever wore a yarmulke as peculiarly as he did at my wedding.

And Des had an uncanny knack for drawing me. As one example, back in the 1990's I wanted to brew beer -- I have no idea why, since I don't drink beer. I think I really liked the prospect of making labels for it. Anyway, Des suggested I call it "Piggyback," which was a reference to an inside joke from our college days. I asked him to create a drawing for the label. Specifically, I asked him to draw a picture of "me riding a pig." He agreed, though he had an unorthodox interpretation of the word "riding." To the right is a picture of the last existing label from "Piggyback Ale."

But I digress.

After nearly 70 years, Mad stopped printing new material last year. I believe their last issue is coming out (or has come out?) this year, but I'm too lazy to look that up. No more Mad means no more Mad movie parodies. So Des and artist Tom Richmond are teaming up to put out a book of movie parodies in the style of the ones that appeared in Mad. Des is among the most prolific writers of these parodies and Tom is among the most prolific artists for them. Des and Tom have probably teamed up to do more of these parodies than any other writer/artist combination. So the form is in good hands with them. They're crowdfunding the project, which is the point of this post.

Please support Desmond's and Tom's project. There's lots of perks you can buy -- in fact, for the right price you can pick a movie you want them to parody, and they'll do it -- complete with a picture of you worked into it. To support them follow this indiegogo link. Tell 'em Moish sent you.