Johnny Sampson does not draw superheroes, but he does have an origin. His origin story, self-published in a beautifully designed, humorous, autobiographical mini-comic, tells the tale of how he became a cartoonist—and came to paint the MAD magazine Fold-In.
Stunned, the illustrator writes back and the friendly legend keeps his promise. Visiting New York, he meets with MAD‘s art director, Sam Viviano, who assures him that the spry Jaffee is not near retirement, but he is invited to submit cartoons. He then journeys to Jaffee’s lair to meet his hero. Jaffee reveals his own origin, shares his secrets, and tells his new friend, “You and I are kindred spirits.” At that point the 40-year-old comics virgin, who up until then had devoted his talents to storyboards, gig posters, and illustrations, realizes his life has changed. He soon is doing gag panels for MAD, comics for Vice, and a recurring strip for The Stranger. He becomes Johnny Sampson . . . cartoonist!
Sampson was born in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia, and in 1980 his family moved to Wildwood, Illinois, a north suburb near the Gurnee Mills mall, where he worked while in high school. He attended University of Illinois in Champaign, earning a BFA in painting. He returned to Chicago, intent on pursuing a fine arts career, but when a roommate studying film at Columbia asked him to create storyboards, Sampson found the process fit his skill set, and that creating art that was functional and appreciated was gratifying. In 2001 his then-girlfriend and he moved to California, where Johnny hustled storyboarding gigs through Craigslist.
Johnny Sampson’s MAD-inspired work
For someone who is so good at cartooning and now makes mini-comics himself, it is amazing how remote Sampson’s relationship with comics and zines has been historically. As a punk teen he created humorous flyers for his band, but didn’t read or make zines. He recalls visiting spectacular comics shops in Los Angeles and just not being interested in the publications. But there has been one exception.
Kurtzman created MAD, a comic book that satirized shows, movies, politicians (most scathingly Joseph McCarthy), and comics. It was an instant sensation thanks to Kurtzman’s Borscht Belt silliness/cynicism, Elder’s manic ten-jokes-per-square-inch art, and Wally Wood’s seductive draftsmanship. Kurtzman’s sprinklings of faux-Yiddish made the magazine seem naughty and low. While MAD‘s subsequent reputation as the Big Bang of subversive satire is an exaggeration (wasn’t every court jester irreverent?), its influence was monumental. Because it targeted adolescents, for a significant portion of the 20th century, MAD was many moldable minds’ first exposure to institutions being mocked. Those minds went on to make underground comics, National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, The Onion, The Daily Show, and so much more.
“They’re a reprint machine now,” explains Judith Yaross Lee, who with John Bird edited Seeing MAD, a massive collection of scholarly MAD-themed essays. “Someone has decided there’s a better return on their investment to recycle old wine in new bottles.” The reprint issues have featured themes, and unfortunately some of the themes have been farewells. In the case of Aragonés, whose recent “MAD Look At . . .” features demonstrate he is still a vital cartoonist, this is due to budget cuts (though not promoted as his last issue, Aragonés drew himself dragging his possessions out of MAD‘s office with a sad, stunned expression). In the case of Jaffee it was a legitimate retirement, as the still mentally sharp humorist, as should be expected, had 99-year-old problems.
“You know, it feels real, but it also feels like I just got in at the tail end of it, again,” Sampson says. “When I was at the ad agencies it was like Mad Men, all these people running around, making commercials, it was like, go, go, go, and then it’s just like, gone. Even doing stuff with the Reader was like, this is great, I’m doing cover illustrations. Then things change and it’s gone. I get these achievements. Then it’s just these massive disappointments. This has been no different.”
