This holiday season the staff at MAD Kids magazine pay tribute to The Clone Wars TV series with a special cover and "Create-Your-Own Crazy Clone Wars Episode" section. StarWars.com chats with MAD magazine Senior Editor Jonathan Bresman about the issue and why it makes sense to carve a turkey with a lightsaber.
Why did MAD magazine decide to do a cover dedicated to the Clone Wars?
MAD's been mocking Star Wars for decades now, so it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Besides, it was also a chance to show off Obi-Wan's little known Jedi cooking skills. I was always sad that we never got to see Alec Guinness fix Mark Hamill a nice meal before they left Tatooine. After all, no one makes a better pumpkin and midi-chlorian pie than Master Kenobi. He puts the Iron Chefs to shame!
Back in 2001, MAD did a parody of the Sharper Image called "The Shoddier Image Catalog" (MAD #408, August 2001, written by Brian and Sean Farrelly. Photographed by Irving Schild). We had Assistant Art Director Ryan Flanders posing with a lightsaber-like "ultra-laser turkey carver." Years later, when Ryan and I were putting together our MAD About Star Wars book (Ryan was the designer), we tried to figure out a way to get it in there since we really liked the idea, but since it was part of a larger, non-Star Wars-related satire, it didn't really fit in. When the MAD team was trying to think up a holiday Clone Wars idea for MAD Kids, we thought of the classic Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving "Freedom from Want" painting, a piece that we've mocked several times in the past. Pretty soon, the old laser turkey carver idea came up again, we put the two together, and -- voila!-- we hit on the idea of Anakin and friends (and enemies) having a holiday feast! Our art director, Sam Viviano, did a rough sketch, and then artist extraordinaire Tom Richmond created the masterpiece you see on the cover of MAD Kids #13!
Is that really turkey? Or Gungan?
Um, it's a drawing, dummy! None of it is real! But seriously, we were debating whether it should be an alien from the Star Wars universe or not. We were thinking maybe it should be some sort of nuna, since they have also been referred to as "swamp turkeys," but we thought a cooked nuna wouldn't really be recognizable once it was plucked, stuffed and roasted at 325 degrees for a couple of hours, and the joke would be lost. So Tom Richmond came up with this sort of alien turkey with multiple legs. Don't worry -- there's ground-up Gungan in the stuffing! Where do you think Boss Nass disappeared to?
What kinds of Star Wars gags are included inside the magazine?
We have a piece in the magazine called "Make Your Own Crazy Episode of The Clone Wars." Readers can put together silly situations such as Plo Koon fighting Dora the Explorer, or Padmé helping Cap'N Crunch escape a sloppy kiss from Grandma. It's almost as wacky as C-3PO and Jar Jar working together! My favorite, though, is Yoda fighting grass stains. It's a skill that will come in handy when he has to flee to Dagobah's swamps after Anakin betrays the Jedi.
Who's your favorite Star Wars character from The Clone Wars to get in the magazine?
The narrator. You can't see him, though, because he's just an invisible voice and no one knows what he looks like. We like to think that he's on the cover saying "Have a Clone Wars Holiday!" in that old-time, movie serial voice of his.
Additional comments about this issue?
Yeah. Buy it! And don't try using any Republic credits! Republic credits are no good out here!
Check out MAD magazine here on the official site.
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