Gorilla Grodd / Alfred E. Neuman
MAD / DC Comics
MAD's art directors, Sam Viviano and Ryan Flanders sent over a brief and rough drawing for the art. As it's a homage to a classic MAD cover, it was fairly simple to envisage the final outcome. Basically, I'd be drawing Gorilla Grodd (The Flash's nemesis) as Alfred E. Neuman, swinging in a tyre that is inexplicably held up.
For me, it was only a question of whether I should try to replicate the style a little, or take a massive departure and do something different. The MAD team left it with me, and I decided it would be fun to at least have a jab at doing it painterly - as close as I could to the great Norman Mingo's style, who drew the original MAD #134 cover.
I inked this up traditionally to begin with - to retain the feel of the original art
Art Director Sam Viviano holding the MAD variants proofs
The original classic MAD magazine for reference
Gorilla Grodd
The finished, raw art
Spotted in the wild!
