I’m In the “Free Comic Book Day” Issue of MAD!
Hey! Tomorrow, Saturday May 4th, is Free Comic Book Day, and if you don’t know what that is, well, it’s…uh, kind of what it sounds like. It’s an event where comic book stores give out free comics, and it usually happens during the first Saturday in May.
Why am I mentioning this? Well, for one thing, Free Comic Book Day is an event you should take part in, if you can. Support your local comic book store! But also, I wrote a Batman parody story that will be reprinted in the FCBD issue of MAD Magazine, which is among the items that will be given out for free tomorrow.
The story I wrote was originally published five years ago and was called, “What if Batman Were Actually 80 Years Old,” because at that point – in 2019 – Batman had been around for 80 years. But the story has been retitled for this FCBD issue of MAD, where it’s now called “What if Batman Were Actually 85 Years Old” (because this year is the Caped Crusader’s 85th birthday).
“What If Batman…” was illustrated by the amazing Pete Woods, and when it was first published in 2019, there were previews of the story in Nerdist and Yahoo News, which you can check out HERE and HERE (respectively). Out of all the humor pieces I wrote for MAD over the years – and in total, there were approximately 29 or 30 of those – this is one of my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy it, too!
The cover of the Free Comic Book Day issue of MAD was illustrated by the wonderful Kerry Callen, who also did some of the interior art.
Oh, and the issue is also available on Kindle via THIS link. (Meaning that you can pre-order it today and it’ll be auto-delivered to your Kindle tomorrow, in time for FCBD.)
BTW, if you’d like to check out some of the other humor pieces I’ve written for MAD, you can see them HERE.
Podcasts and Puppetry
Jason DeHart was kind enough to let me make a return visit to his podcast, “Words, Images, & Worlds,” and the interview is up NOW.
This time around, Jason and I talked about some of my more recent projects, like The X-Men Little Golden Book and my upcoming nonfiction book The Encyclopedia of Epic Myths and Legends.
And if you watch the video version of the interview via YouTube, you’ll see what this little blue puppet with the big sunken eyes has to do with everything.
Here’s Jason’s description of the interview: Prolific author Arie Kaplan talks X-Men ’97, Minecraft, Gilbert Gottfried, myths and legends, and much more!
That about sums it up.
You can see the whole interview below.
Check it out!