By: Tom Richmond
August 7th, 2016 | Posted in General
We preempt the Sunday Mailbag for an important announcement… The National Cartoonists Society Foundation’s cartoon art auction to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ends at 5:00 pm central time today. The above piece is my original ink and wash illustration for the St. Jude benefit fundraiser the NCS did on May 26th of this year. as of this writing, it’s going for a ridiculously cheap $280. There are a lot of other great originals going for a song right now, including a Robb Armstrong “Jump Start” daily for $12 (???), a Greg Evans “Luann” daily original for $22 (WTF?), an original… actually there are… READ MORE
August 5th, 2016 | Posted in News
The National Cartoonists Society Foundation is sponsoring a live auction with Heritage Auctions to benefit St. Jude, and it’s going on RIGHT NOW!!! As part of the NCS Foundation’s “Cartooning For Kids” program, some of the biggest names in cartooning have donated pieces of original art for auction, with all proceeds going to benefit St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It’s a chance for people to own a unique piece of original artwork … and help save and improve the lives of so many children in the process! Among those represented in the auction are: Patrick McDonnell, Lynn Johnston, Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Rick Kirkman, Ray… READ MORE
August 4th, 2016 | Posted in News
I’m a guest on the latest Comics Manifest podcast, a show dedicated to inspiring comics creators everywhere. My pal Eddie Pittman was a guest a few episodes ago. It’s a very uplifting and positive show, which is a refreshing change from the all-too-0ften snarky and negative interwebs. I enjoyed being interviewed by host Aaron Williams. Give it a listen. READ MORE
August 3rd, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Ordinarily I have to wait until the issue actually hits the stands before I can share any of the work I did in the latest MAD. However, Newsarama posted an exclusive sneak peek at Dick DeBartolo and my parody of the HGTV show “Fixer Upper”… so the cat is out of the bag! Splash page above, page 2 here: Incidentally, just for fun I drew my good friends Ed and Heather Steckley in as the couple on the show (so to speak)… at least they were my friends until they got a load of this. MAD #541 is slated for newsstands on Aug 16th, but… READ MORE
August 3rd, 2016 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s a very quick and loose study of “The Tonight Show” host and SNL alum Jimmy Fallon. READ MORE
August 2nd, 2016 | Posted in General
A few peers of mine on FaceBook recently had a discussion regarding the age old query: is being an artist based on God given talent or training and practice? I think most people would agree it’s a combination of both, but how much of what an artist can do is a result of the talent, and how much the hard work? That’s where the debate and difference of opinion lies. I’ve had many people tell me they “wish they had the talent to draw” and make other comments that demonstrate they obviously believe that artistic ability is magically bestowed by the gods or the universe… READ MORE
July 31st, 2016 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you ever “recycle” your art? I mean: maybe there is an idea or a concept which one customer did not like but another customer could like? Or maybe you could recycle some “background-elements” in more than one picture (a dog, a car, a house, etc.). Or are you even sometimes able to re-use whole caricatures? A: Yes to all of the above. If I have elements of a previous illustration or some sketch or something that will work well with a current project, I will absolutely use those elements again. This is especially true with background objects or environments and illustration jobs. I… READ MORE
July 29th, 2016 | Posted in MAD Magazine
For those people who can’t or don’t want to use the native iOS or Android apps for getting their bimonthly MAD fix, DC Entertainment recently announced MAD Magazine will now be available on the popular digital magazine newsstand Magzter. This is great news as The Magzter app is available on the web, iOS, Google Play, Amazon App Store, Kindle Fire and is expanding to more platforms soon, making digital MAD much more platform independent. From the official press release: “The ‘Usual Gang of Idiots’ at MAD Magazine is very pleased to partner with Magzter in growing the online distribution of MAD. We are confident that… READ MORE
