MAD writer extraordinaire Desmond Devlin sent me a link recently to this fantastic Flickr “set” entitled “The Art of Jack Davis” which features some great quality scans of about 200 pieces of artwork by one of the greatest cartoonists and illustrators who ever lived. Warning: do NOT click on the above link unless you are prepared to spend at least an hour perusing some little seen gems including album covers, posters, advertising art, MAD work and much more.

This week’s sketch is of a rather obscure subject. I was catching up on some Netflix movies in the home theater the other day and I watched “28 Weeks Later”, the not so great sequel to the pretty good “28 Days Later” apocalyptic horror film. The character of Tammy was played by a young English actress with the unusual name of Imogen Poots. She had a very haunting look with heavy eyelashes/eyeliner and icy turquoise eyes, a strongly angular face shape with a distinctive nose and bruised looking lips. Quite an arresting look that inspired me to draw her. Anyway, I did this one partly from the memory of the disheveled look of her “28 Weeks Later” character and partly from a few photos from teh interwebby. It’s a brutal caricature of a quite lovely girl and I’m sure her mom would yell at me should she see it.

Last night episode four of the new MAD animated show on the Cartoon Network aired another of the segments I worked on… a parody of the TV show “Glee”.

This was easily the most work I’ve done so far for a single segment. I think there were 14 main characters to draw plus a number of cameos, extra faces and expressions. To try and save time I did them in tight pencil form and then colored them as opposed to doing any polished linework… the result was a lot rougher than I had hoped. However I thought the animation folks at the WB studios did a pretty great job with what I gave them to work with.

Here are some of the images i did as character guides for the “uGlee” segment:

Matthew Morrison/ Will Schuster

Jane Lynch/ Sue Sylvester

Lea Michele/ Rachel Berry

Cory Monteith/ Finn Hudson

Dianna Agron/ Quinn Fabray

Mark Salling/ Noah “Puck” Puckerman

Amber Riley/ Mercedes Jones

Chris Colfer/ Kurt Hummel

Kevin McHale/ Artie Abrams

Jenna Ushkowitz/ Tina Cohen-Chang

Naya Rivera/ Santana Lopez

Jayma Mays/ Emma Pillsbury

Iqbal Theba/ Principal Figgins

Brad The Piano Guy

And some cameos…

Victoria Justice

The Jonas Bros

Miley Cirus

Interestingly enough shortly after I did this work for the TV show I was assigned the art on the parody of “Glee” for MAD, which will be in the next issue due out in a few weeks.

Last week the Sunday Mailbag question was about how I seem to do a lot of political type work. Well, it IS an election year, and so I’ve been getting my fair share of projects relating to politics. I must say the conservatives are spending a lot more money than the liberals this time around… almost all my projects recently have been for the right side of the aisle. Here is a the progression of one from last month. This more painted style caricature of Sen. Harry Reid is being used for some kind of campaign promotion:

This is one of a few rough sketches that the client approved to go forward. I wasn’t trying too hard with the likeness in any of them… the point was trying to get the “scene” down. Sorry seem to have trashed the other sketches.

Here’s the tighter sketch for final approval. Click for a closer look,,,

Click for a closer look…

The image above I saved and sent out to the client because they asked for a rare look at the work in progress. I hate doing that and usually discourage it, because invariably the client comes back with a “please make sure the final is nice and clean without pencil lines and with a tighter painting”. Then I have to bite my tongue and say “Never fear, this is just a partially finished image and the final will reflect my usual finished work quality” when instead I am thinking “No shit, Sherlock. YOU are the one who asked for a look at an unfinished piece. Sheesh.”

Here’s the finished artwork. Click for a closer look…

Q: Now that I’m working freelance full-time, I’m wondering: what do you do when you get sick? As I’m typing this, I’m dealing with a nasty cold and although I want to spend the day in bed, there’s work to be done. What’s your experience with being sick while dealing with deadlines, Tom? I can’t imagine trying to pull an all-nighter with a puke bucket by your drawing desk!

A: That reminds me of my standard answer to the question “What’s it like working at home?” My answers are:

“The best thing is you get to work out of your home” and “The worst thing is you are never out of the office”.

Similarly, you don’t get to call in sick and turn whatever work or productivity your company was planning on getting out of you that day into someone else’s problem. It’s a drag and maybe a little unfair but it’s also the cold, hard truth. You’ve got a job to do and nobody else is there to pick up the ball if you are too sick to play. I’m fortunate in that I don’t get sick very often, and when I do it’s short lived. However it would take me being really, seriously ill to keep me from getting something done when I have a deadline. Everybody gets colds and has the flu and that little stuff sometimes. If you have a deadline and no wiggle room, then you just suck it up and get it done unless you are so sick you can’t function properly.

People are human and do get seriously sick sometimes, or have accidents or personal crises or some other catastrophe. I guess in that case you just have to call the client and explain the situation and hope they understand. If they do, then that’s fine. If they don’t, I guess you have no choice if you just cannot continue your job for whatever serious reason. If the client has a drop dead deadline date and it gets blown as a result of you being sick, then that’s simply life. If the client is not understanding then maybe you never get another call from them, but that is out of your control. Life happens and sometimes things get in the way. It’s just as easy to get in a car crash and be laid up in the hospital for a couple of days with broken ribs… there is no “sucking it up” from something like that. That’s why operating at the very edge of a deadline is not a good idea… there is then no cushion for the unforeseen.

There is a difference between being truly too sick to work or having some other crisis interrupt your life and just coming up with excuses as to why you can’t get the job done on time. You know the difference, and if you only allow something really unavoidable to get in your way you will not lose many jobs or have many problems because of those issues. Allowing the minor ones to get in the way will eventually catch up to you.

Thanks to Chris Houghton for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!

If you draw caricatures for a living, the annual convention and competition of the International Society of Caricature Artists is as close to utopia as you are likely to find…. and I’m not just saying that because I used to be president of the organization. It really is an amazing event. Imagine over 200 caricature artists set up in one huge room drawing each other silly for four days using almost every imaginable medium and technique in between daily workshops, guest speakers and presentation by some of the most talented caricaturists working today. By the end of the week every square inch of wall space is crammed with thousands of pieces of caricature art ranging from the gentle to the brutal to the flat out amazing. That’s the ISCA con.

The 2010 con is coming up November 7th-12th at the Alexis Park Resort in Las Vegas, NV. The guest of honor is caricaturist/animator Bill Plympton, who will be giving a keynote address as conducting a workshop as well. Other workshops and seminars include those by illustrator Court Jones, cartoonist Lar de Souza and animator Stephen Silver as well as several others and a few surprises no doubt.

The cost to attend is quite reasonable considering everything you get: multiple presentations, seminars, workshops (Bill Plympton’s workshop is an extra $5.00 which goes directly to Bill) a couple of meals including the ending awards banquet and 5 days of hanging out with an incredibly talented and diverse group of artists. All this for $200 (you must also be a member of the ISCA) IF you register before Oct. 1st.  It’s $250 after Oct. 1st. They have also negotiated an excellent room rate of only $89 a night in this all suite resort.

Professional ISCA membership costs $60 a year and includes a free ISCA directory webpage, access to the ISCA members-only Forum, eligibility to compete at the annual ISCA convention and of course the quarterly magazine Exaggerated Features. New members may join the ISCA at a special rate of $50 for the first year.

Anyone who does caricatures for a living needs to attend this convention at least once in their lives. It is a career boost of the first degree… no one ever leaves the convention without a huge dose of inspiration and an infusion of energy and passion about their art.

Sadly, I will not be attending this year because I will be on another cartoonist USO tour overseas at the same time the convention occurs, or I would say “see you there”.

Here’s a short promo for the new book “Al Jaffee’s MAD Life” where Al recounts the story behind his famous “Fold In” feature for MAD and reminisces about the MAD old days.

In honor of my Minnesota Twins clinching the American League Central Division championship last night, this week’s sketch is of one of the main reasons why they were able to do it. Slugger Jim Thome was long coveted by the Twins even as he spent most of his career playing for other teams in our division, but they eventually signed him and he’s been a godsend. 25 home runs in a part time DH role while bringing great leadership and enthusiasm as well as total class into the clubhouse. Congrats Thome and the Twins!

When DC Comics became DC Entertainment months ago there was a lot of speculation that they might move all their operations, including the publishing division that produces DC Comics, graphic novels and MAD Magazine, to the west coast.

According to an official press release today as reported by Comic Book Resources, this will not be the case.

Official Press Release

DC ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES BI-COASTAL REALIGNMENT STRATEGY

MULTI-MEDIA AND DIGITAL BUSINESSES RELOCATE TO LOS ANGELES WHILE DC COMICS PUBLISHING TO REMAIN IN NEW YORK CITY

(September 21, 2010 – New York) DC Entertainment, as part of its ongoing strategy to integrate the DC Comics business, brand and characters into Warner Bros. Entertainment’s content and distribution operations, will relocate its business functions related to and supporting multi-media and digital content production to Burbank, California. DCE’s publishing operations will remain in New York, continuing DC Comics’ 75-plus year legacy of leadership in the comic book arena. These announcements were made today by Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment.

“These organizational changes reinforce the strengths of DC’s greatest legacies – most importantly its people and its creative talent – and offer greater opportunity for maximum growth, success and efficiency in the future,” said Nelson. “Our two offices will stretch and build their respective areas of focus, while prioritizing and aggressively striving to connect and cooperate more strongly than ever before between them and with their colleagues at Warner Bros.”

“This strategic business realignment allows us to fully integrate and expand the DC brand in feature films as well as across multiple distribution platforms of Warner Bros. and Time Warner,” said Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, to whom Nelson reports. “We are creating a seamless, cohesive unit that will bring even more great characters and content to consumers everywhere.”

The relocation process is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011, with DCE’s businesses related to the development and production of feature films, television, digital media, video games and consumer products as well as the company’s administrative functions relocating to a Warner Bros.-managed property in Burbank, CA. DC Comics’ publishing operations, which have been the bedrock since the company’s inception with an annual output of over 1,100 comic books, 300 graphic novels and MAD magazine, will remain in New York. The bi-coastal business units will work more closely together to continue elevating the powerful DCE brand.

DC Entertainment was founded in September 2009 to fully realize the power and value of the DC Comics brand and characters across all media and platforms. The senior management team responsible for shepherding DCE through this reorganization is comprised of Nelson, Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer; John Rood, Executive Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Business Development; and Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, Co-Publishers of DC Comics.

Good news for MAD, because I doubt many or any of the current staff would be too interested in relocating from NYC to Burbank. I’ve got nothing except my personal feeling about that, but the MAD staff and born and bred New Yorkers and it would be hard to see them eating sprouts and drinking vitamin water out in L.A.

We interrupt this art blog for a little fitness discussion…

Today was “Back Day” at Renegade Fitness, the local gym where I have been working out for several years now. About 10 minutes into the workout, a delivery guy drops by with the gym’s newest piece of equipment… an Olympic hex bar. Good timing, since dead lifts were the next lift for the workout.

A hex bar is so called because it’s shaped in a hexagonal form making it easy to step in and out of the bar and centering the weight on each side, ideal for shrugs and dead lifts. Doing dead lifts with a regular bar really places a lot of stress on your lower back, because no matter how strict your form is the weight is still slightly in front of you, making your center of balance hard to maintain directly over your feet. The heavier you get, the harder it is to “stay back” and keep your lower back from taking too much of the load. In my case, once I got tired during a heavy set my rear end would raise up slightly before I started pulling with my back, and then the low back and hamstrings would get too involved as the dead lift became a partial stiff legged version. Additionally, the skin on the front of my shins would get scraped raw from the textured bar grips rubbing as I stood up during the lift and I’d start bleeding all over the place.

This was my first time using a hex bar, and it was great. The weight is located directly in line with your torso as opposed to being in front of you. No low back involvement, I was able to stay back and keep the stress on my glutes, quads and lats. In the video above, I did a last set of six reps at 385 lbs. Not a huge amount of weight yet, but I’m still working my way back after shoulder surgery about 18 months ago.

Actually I am about as fully recovered from my rotator cuff repair as I am likely to get. The shoulder will never be 100% again. There is a smaller range of motion and it gets sore after doing pressing and shoulder work, but it’s manageable and I am hoping I can get back to the point where I am doing the kind of weight I was prior to the injury. Right now I am doing about 85% of that weight.

For anyone interested, here are the details of my back day workout. We are doing a descending reps routine, 4 sets of each exercise with 12, 10, 8 and 6 reps respectively as the weight goes up with each set and some core stuff supersetted in:

Back Day

• Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns- 4 x 12,10,8,6
• Dead Lifts- 4 x 12,10,8,6
• Superset: Close Grip V-Bar Pulldowns- 4 x 12,10,8,6 / Medicine Ball Slams 4 x 12
• Superset: One Arm Dumbbell Rows- 4 x 12,10,8,6 / Side Raises 4 x 20
• Superset: Wide Grip Bar Rows- 4 x 12,10,8,6 / Hanging Knee Ups 4 x 20 / Back Extensions 4 x 20
• Shrugs- 4 x 12,10,8,6