Last Friday night my wife Kayte and I were totally gleeful (and I rarely become totally gleeful) to be guests of our good friend Grant Geissman at a filming of Two and a Half Men at Warner Brothers studios in Burbank. Emmy-nominated Grant is co-writer of the show’s theme song, and directs musical content for each episode. He’s one of the best crossover and contemporary jazz guitarists ever — and has recorded extensively with a supertankerload of major artists. His 14^th album as leader will be released this spring.  The creatively prodigious Grant is also an authority on EC comics and MAD magazine – having authored three books on the subject – the most recent being Foul Play! The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics! He also wrote the foreword to The Wolverton Bible, released this month and covered in an earlier blog entry.

We were already devout fans of the show – but this session exceeded in sheer fun all the tapings of other shows we have ever attended. The studio audience was skillfully kept in a near-frenetic state throughout the 4-hour session — which went by way too quickly.

Afterward Grant introduced us to executive producers / writers Eddie Gorodetsky, Mark Roberts and Don Foster, each of whose credits would run for miles. Suffice it to say if you put them all together, they have 11 Emmy nominations and one win.

Eddie has some of the work of my father, Basil Wolverton,  in his collection — including a couple of his rare early newspaper strip attempts. Mark and Don are both fans of my dad’s work from way back – especially in MAD magazine.

It’s great to know — in this 100th year since my dad’s birth — that on some level his work is influencing some of the best minds in comedic entertainment.

Speaking of MAD, my father and Grant Geissman — here’s a painting Grant commissioned me to do last year based on one of several pieces my dad did for MAD #11 in 1954. If you stare intently at this for about eight hours, without blinking — you, too, may develop a fine comedic mind. 

Monte Wolverton