The Book That Almost Wasn't

But Eventually Was

Oct 29, 2024

Interning at MAD Magazine changed my life. I was a wide eyed teenager just in college who wanted to be a cartoonist and was way out of their league. The best thing that came from it was that I wasn’t wanted for my art but for my writing. This was new. I was wanted for my ideas and my jokes. Ruh roh…

I quickly found out I wasn’t that funny at all. These guys were funny! I won’t get too much into the origin story of my MAD tenure. (That’s a story for another time…) I worked hard on it and eventually became part of the Usual Gang of Idiots. This is what the magazine calls their contributing writers and artists. Now, I’m just an idiot in a whole different, more applicable context.

Around 2016, MAD opened up a book submission guideline to their idiots. Like everything, I wanted to sell a book project - it was a MAD bucket list item for me.

I wrote a couple of ideas but they were a bit too fleeting of an idea.

One was a parody of The Cat in the Hat about Justin Bieber being an out of control dum dum at the time called The Brat in the Hat. Like all good ideas, I thought of it in the shower and was writing it already in my head. I had to cut the shower short to get to my computer (and hopefully not slip!) so I didn’t forget my rhymes!

MAD didn’t go for it. I get it - as a freelancer, almost 95%+ of stuff is rejected. Some for a good reason and others just because. It’s a volume business.

I sent another idea later on when Trump was campaigning in the primary. It was a parody of Harold and the Purple Crayon called Donald and the Red White and Blue Crayon. I liked the idea of him using his false patriotism to make things come out of thin air. It had things like Donald drawing a wall to keep out illegals and then getting tired so drawing illegals to finish it for him. It went on from there…

MAD didn’t go for it again. Their reason was that the election was moving too quickly to green light a Trump book since he could fizzle out or go away any minute. If only…

Well Trump became President and I’m still waiting for him to go away…

A year or two went by and I came up with another idea - This time it was a parody of “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” called If You Give The President A Twitter Account. How outdated now? Trump hasn’t been on Twitter for years and it hasn’t been called Twitter for years too! Ooofffph

MAD liked this one! But as an article for the magazine. I was a little disappointed because I thought it would have been a great standalone book. I continued with my editor, the amazing Dave Croatto, on another draft to try to perfect it. This was 2017 and the magazine announces that they will be moving to Burbank to be with all of DC Entertainment. Plus the NY staff all said NO to relocating to Burbank, except one junior staffer in the art department who only worked for 6 months with the magazine. Uh-oh…

We knew this was coming eventually but it still sucks when it happens. That October, NY Comic Con felt like a MAD goodbye. I went to the MAD panel on Friday and sat with the staff in the front row. I was introduced to the crowd and my work was even projected to the crowd! Surreal is not even the word…

If anyone is wondering, I’m the young white guy…

After a full day of Comic Con with my students at our school’s booth, I was walking downtown to DC’s Comic Con party at a brewery. It was all MAD themed which was awesome but also sad because you knew why. When I went to the party, I talked to the staff and asked about the Trump article which I hadn’t heard about in a few months.

Dave said: “Oh yeah, we were going over it the other day with John (John Ficarra, the editor in chief of MAD) and John said

“You know this is really a book…”

I didn’t play it cool at all…I responded “I pitched it at a book! You said it was an article!”

With the new staff coming in, they had no control to green light it. They told me that they are going to tell the staff that they have a solid good to go book project. I was cautiously optimistic. I still had to win over a new staff.

I met the new editor in chief Bill Morrison and a couple of other new staffers at the party and even an old MAD buddy Doug who was going to be the new #2 in the art department. That made me a little more optimistic than I was previously.

When the new year came, I emailed about the book project and got a response. “We are not taking on any book projects at this time.” I finally got a toe past the gates and they were abruptly shut in my face…

What am I going to do now? I went on with the year becoming more frustrated with my book project being on the shelf and then even more frustrated when I tried to work with the new staff. I think a good to go book project from the old MAD would have made me at least a little curious if I were them. I had no agent to pitch it other places and a full time job to worry about instead of this book script. Book parodies aren’t a hot commodity - MAD was the best place for this and they don’t want it now.

When the summer came, I eventually said to myself - I’m going to do it myself. I wouldn’t have drawn the book with MAD but by myself I had to! Would I kickstart it or shop it around? I don’t know - let’s just do it first and figure it out later.

Caricatures can be hard to capture someone’s likeness but try doing it in some else’s style! It is a parody after all! Some came easily like Trump, Jared and Anderson Cooper but Wolf Blitzer - hours and hours of nothing…

Ivanka

Jared

Jake Tapper

I sketched the whole book out in a few weeks and then had to redraw it over in softer pencil so I could transfer it over to my bristol board for final color. Didn’t think that through - that’s a week I’ll never get back…

I finished it before school started. It’s done! Finally!…Now what?

Someone on Instagram was very mad that I drew Sarah Huckabee Sanders like this. They said it was both mean but actually looked a lot like her. They told me to do better…There was a major turning point in my life. There is before this anonymous comment and after…Thank you so much for your unsolicited opinion…it means a lot. You both think I am a horrible person but also talented. Huh, what kind of power move is this?…

I liked adding the mouse into a couple of spreads.

I submitted the book to a couple of publishers with open submissions with no response. If I wasn’t a major player online they wouldn’t touch me. Ironically, I wouldn’t need them if I was…

I went to Comic Con the next year and found a book publisher booth. To my astonishment, I found the book Donald and the Golden Crayon. It was my exact book pitch from years ago! I thought I might have had a place for my book but again, it didn’t work. The writer/artist was a major player in children’s books writing under a fake name - they only did it because it was them. No luck again…

Fast forward to the summer again - I see a former MAD Magazine writer is posting a lot of his work for a site called The Weekly Humorist. I saw they were posting about books of theirs they were selling. Maybe this would work. I contacted Kit and he told me who to reach out to. I did and in a week I had a meeting with Marty Dundics, the editor. He set up the meeting and said let’s talk about it in person. I had already sent him the finished book at this point.

When we sat down the first thing Marty said pointing to my fully printed out book on his desk, “I love this - I want to publish it.” I was wide eyed and stunned.

It found a home.

As we talked things over, Marty asked me what other things I was working on and what I did. I pulled up my instagram to show him some dumb mashups I drew. I showed him a piece I did a few nights before - it was a parody cover of Shel Silverstein’s iconic “A Light in the Attic” called A Gaslight in the Attic with Trump.

Marty laughed and I said “If I was still with MAD the same way, I might be writing poems right now!” Marty replied “You still can. What about for me?”

I was stunned. Okay. Did I just sell another book idea? We talked it over and as I left, I thought,

“One project found a home. Now I have to work on the next one…”

I went home and opened a Word document. “A Gaslight in the Attic” By Matt Lassen.

Onto the next one…

Another Cartoonist Named Matt

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