Dick DeBartolo
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Dick DeBartolo is one of the most prolific writers of satire for Mad Magazine. He is occasionally referred to as "Mad's Maddest Writer," this being a follow-up to Don Martin's former status as "Mad's Maddest Artist." DeBartolo is cited as a "Creative Consultant" on the magazine's masthead.
Mad has long spaced out DeBartolo's articles to ensure that at least one appears in every issue. Thus, he has appeared in over 350 consecutive issues, dating back to 1966. This is the longest such record streak, surpassing Sergio Aragones by nine issues. Aragones would be 25 issues ahead of DeBartolo's run if not for a single missed issue, #111. Al Jaffee would also be 16 issues ahead of DeBartolo had he appeared in issue #360. Other than these three, only Dave Berg (whose streak was halted by his death) appeared in as many as 300 consecutive issues. Don Martin and Paul Coker Jr. both surpassed 200 straight.
DeBartolo has written for such TV series as the Match Game quiz show. During the early 1960s, DeBartolo cast Match Game panelists in his own 8 mm film comedies. A rare public showing of those films was held in a Manhattan hotel ballroom in 1964. DeBartolo told GSN in 2006 that when The Match Game moved west in the 1970s, he stayed in New York and sent in his questions to the Match Game staff in Los Angeles. The West Coast version ran for nine years on CBS and in syndication. After his experience on the Match Game, DeBartolo served as creative consultant on other Goodson-Todman game shows.
His book, Good Days and Mad: A Hysterical Tour Behind the Scenes at Mad Magazine (1994), traces his first 30 years at Mad and details his friendship with publisher William Gaines. It includes contributions from other Mad writers and artists and memorable anecdotes, notably the ascent that DeBartolo, Gaines and Annie Gaines once made through the arm of the Statue of Liberty.
On February 20, 2006, Dick DeBartolo and Leo Laporte began producing a podcast called The Daily Giz Wiz, a short, daily discussion about technology and gadgets which celebrated its 200th episode on November 24, 2006.
DeBartolo appears as a monthly guest of Computer America, heard in New York, Boston and 28 other markets, plus streaming on the Internet. He also has a periodic "gadget" segment on ABC World News Now.
- Giz Wiz Biz, DeBartolo's official site
- Interview with DeBartolo by Dr. Keith E. Tubbs
- Dick DeBartolo at the Internet Movie Database
| Contributors to Mad "The Usual Gang of Idiots" |
| Editors |
|---|
| Jerry DeFuccio | Al Feldstein | John Ficarra | Harvey Kurtzman | Nick Meglin |
| Writers |
| Anthony Barbieri | Dick DeBartolo | Desmond Devlin | Stan Hart | Frank Jacobs | Tom Koch | Arnie Kogen | Barry Leibmann | Jay Lynch | Andrew J. Schwartzberg | Larry Siegel | Lou Silverstone | Mike Snider |
| Writer-Artists |
| Sergio Aragonés | Dave Berg | John Caldwell | Don Edwing | Al Jaffee | Don Martin | Paul Peter Porges | Antonio Prohías |
| Artists |
| Tom Bunk | Bob Clarke | Paul Coker, Jr. | Jack Davis | Mort Drucker | Will Elder | Drew Friedman | Bernard Krigstein | Peter Kuper | Hermann Mejia | Norman Mingo | Tom Richmond | Jack Rickard | John Severin | Angelo Torres | Rick Tulka | Sam Viviano | Basil Wolverton | Monte Wolverton | Wally Wood | George Woodbridge | Bill Wray |
| Photographers |
| Irving Schild |
| Related articles |
| Mad Magazine | William M. Gaines |
