D R E W • F R I E D M A N

Thursday, November 22, 2012

The 1962 Mort Drucker JFK Coloring Book

cover designed by
Beverley Clarke Roman

The JFK COLORING BOOK was a 22 page coloring book for adults, conceived in 1962 by Alexander A. Roman along with comedian/writer Jackie Kannon with additional copy by Paul Laikin, and self-published that year as a KANROM book. The great MAD caricaturist Mort Drucker was hired to do the illustrations. It takes a satirical look at the Kennedy White House, narrated by and seen through the eyes of young daughter Carolyn. She briefly introduces the reader to the different family members and friends (Frank Sinatra, etc), policy makers, and political leaders. The book sold several million copies upon it's release, but of course all but disappeared from the shelves the following year due to certain unforeseen circumstances.

Here are a few pages featuring some of the great Mort Drucker drawings from the book:

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Charlie Manna album covers

Charlie Manna (1920-1971) was a very funny Italian American comedian who was popular throughout the sixties but is sadly forgotten today...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Manna

Charlie Manna performs his act on the Johnny Cash show

His legacy is several great album covers: The first "Manna Overboard" from 1961, featured these fun, quirky background cartoons by an artist unknown to me:

The second "The Rise & Fall of a Great Society" from 1966, is by the one and only Jack Davis...

"Manna-Live!"... well two out of three ain't bad.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Portrait of John Severin

John Severin © Drew Friedman

This is the latest in my ongoing series of "portraits of the legends of comic books", the late artist John Severin (1921-2012), one of the original MAD/EC comics artists. I portrayed him at work in his studio circa the mid-seventies, putting finishing touches on his latest cover painting for "Cracked", the MAD imitation magazine where he worked for 45 years and was their signature artist .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Severin

My blog from earlier this year on John Severin's Cracked paperback covers:

http://drewfriedman.blogspot.com/2012/02/john-severins-cracked-paperback-covers.html

Monday, November 12, 2012

My 1991 "Wacky Package" drawings

Louse & Garbage by DF

all pencil sketches included here
are © Drew Friedman

In 1991, I was creating many concept sketches and pencil drawings for the TOPPS company, including for their latest set of the hugely popular sticker series "Wacky Packages". Mark Newgarden was the editor and art director for the 1991 series, and the writers for the card fronts included Newgarden, Jay Lynch, Jordan Bochanis, John Mariano and myself. I drew about 22 tight pencil images which would (with one exception) be painted by the illustrator Patrick Piggott.

Unfortunately, many of the cards I created (mostly parodying popular magazine covers of the day) were ultimately not used, the "Lost Wacky's". The problem was that Topps gave the go-ahead to proceed into a second series before the first series had even been marketed. When the numbers were finally crunched, it was decided that the team should move along with other satirical projects. Most of these pencil drawings have never been seen till now, aside from several turning up on a Wacky Packs site but incorrectly attributed to other artists.