Tom's Mad Blog
September 29th, 2020 | Posted in General
We are officially one week into Desmond Devlin and my CLAPTRAP book project campaign, and we are off to a terrific start! Thanks to over 200 backers, we are already at 44% of our goal! THANK YOU to all of you who have backed the project! Here’s what’s been going on this week with the book and the campaign: Book Stuff! Des and I are already working on the second movie parody. The script is done, and I’m working on the art. We’ll be releasing a sneak peek at the splash page for this one soon. EVERYONE is going to love that we picked this… READ MORE
September 28th, 2020 | Posted in Monday MADness
I taught my final workshop for the foreseeable future this past weekend in Chicago (more workshop news tomorrow). One of the artists participating was Scott Olney, who has been one of the people I most look forward to seeing when I do comic cons in the Chicago area. Fist, he’s a cool guy who is always fun to chat with. Second, he always has a challenge for me with a “Alfred as…” comic-con commission. He names some obscure Marvel character and has me draw Alfred E. Neuman as that character. There are always fun because it can he tough to figure out how to “Alfredize”… READ MORE
September 27th, 2020 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You seemed to be somewhat dismissive of crowdfunding projects in the past, yet here you are doing one. Why the change of heart? Also, why the high $45k goal? A: I don’t think “dismissive” is an accurate description. I’d use the word “selective”. It’s true I have not promoted very many Kickstarters or IndieGoGos on my blog, but that’s not because I have anything against crowdfunded projects. I am just very picky about ones I do promote. I have to be convinced that They are creating something that really interests me They are going to follow through and make the book or movie or… READ MORE
September 25th, 2020 | Posted in General
Yesterday I posted a picture of my drawing board for an online challenge. A corner of my Al Hirschfeld original of me was showing, and I got several messages asking me to show the whole thing. I’ve done that several times on the blog, but here’s the story of “The Big Three” again. A good portion of one wall in my studio is filled by three caricatures of me by three of the greatest caricaturists ever, Al Hirschfeld, Sebastian Krüger and Mort Drucker. There’s a story behind each (if you only read one, read the Mort Drucker Story): The one on the left is by… READ MORE
September 24th, 2020 | Posted in General
It’s a “thing” right now for artists to post a picture of your drawing board, so here’s mine. I cut and recessed the LED light table into the board myself (the Batman “Shakespeare” bust switch turns it on). There’s a piece of plexi over the light table that is flush with the green drawing board cover so it’s one level surface. The two framed MAD splashes are signed by Jack Black and Kyle Gass (Fools of Rock) and the entire cast of “Mad Men”. That’s Greg Preston‘s picture of a bunch of the “Usual Gang of Idiots” from the 2012 NCS Reuben Awards, signed my… READ MORE
September 23rd, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
Here’s my Oscar Isaac. I kind of cheated here as I just got done drawing him a LOT for the first parody in Des Devlin and my new book project Claptrap (back us now on IndieGoGo!) You can get the original of this sketch here. Caricature Notes: As usual, I gather up multiple references of my subject, preferably showing me different angles, even if I base my caricature mostly on a single image. It’s important to see the face from different perspectives in order to get a good handle on what you can best exaggerate. With Isaac, he has heavily lidded, “sleepy” eyes, a very… READ MORE
September 22nd, 2020 | Posted in General
Are you sad that MAD Magazine has stopped producing the movie parodies that they helped make a part of American Pop Culture? MAD writer Desmond Devlin and I are too, mostly because we have been doing the majority of them for the last twenty years and they aren’t paying us anymore! Well we decided to do something about it! We are pleased to announce the launch of our IndieGoGo campaign to produce a book FULL of movie parodies in the classic, humorous vein. Full color! Real paper! Hardcover! Reasonably proficient grammar! It’s called Claptrap!: Our first parody is already done (see splash page above)! MAD… READ MORE
September 22nd, 2020 | Posted in General
Okay, enough with the sneak peeks. Look for the big announcement of the worst kept secret in comics next hour! READ MORE
