It's always been a childhood dream of my husband-and probably a lot of other young cartoonists-to be published in Mad magazine.  Of course I'm biased-but I've always thought he would fit in perfectly.  (You can check out his work at: www.hungaskiillustration.com)  

In November, Jim was lucky enough to get to tour the Mad magazine office-and meet with the art director-Sam Viviano.  Such a nice guy-he took time on Thanksgiving eve to give us a tour of the office, reviewed Jim's portfolio and gave him a lot of constructive criticism.  

It's always been a childhood dream-but now it looks like it may never happen

The signs were there-instead of the original artwork by artists like: Mort Drucker and Herman Meija-there were baskets, and salt shakers attached to the wall.  He explained that they'd recently had an auction where they'd sold almost all of the original artwork they had.  These lunchroom staples were hanging up there while they waited for the reprints. He also talked about the difficulties in the print media business-noting that almost every magazine with the exception of fashion magazines and entertainment tabloids are struggling.  Yesterday, they announced that they will be changing from a monthly magazine to quarterly.  

www.newsarama.com/comics/010923-MAD-Quarterly.html

A couple of years ago, Disney let go of all of their traditional animators-they will be focusing on computer animation from now on.  Magazines and newspapers are in trouble.  Entertainment weekly continues to value artists who cannot get a likeness of their subject.  Cool devices like the Amazon kindle reduce the need for illustration as well.  They keep making machines that will draw your portrait or caricature for under 10.00.

*sigh*  The world is changing.  I'm just not sure that I always like the way it's going.