Tom's Mad Blog
August 20th, 2020 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
These are a full page and series of spot illustrations I did for the now-defunct Fade In magazine, a movie industry publication, back in 2008. The story was about how some big movie studio executives rated with writers, directors and other creative folks from their films. The article asked numerous, high-level, creative types to share their experience working with then current studio regimes around town. The spot illustrations below are caricatures of actual studio executives that were working at the time. I don’t remember their names. READ MORE
August 19th, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
Here’s my quick take on Gary Oldman… plus a bonus of him as Dracula from my “These Guys Suck” print: READ MORE
August 18th, 2020 | Posted in News
I’ve had a number of people drop out of the Chicago workshop, now scheduled for Sept 26-27th, and we are down to only 8 students. We have plenty of room in the classroom space for proper social distancing and COVID-19 protocols, so I am opening up a spot for one more student. This is the last workshop of 2020. I have no idea when I will start doing these again. If you have wanted to take one of my workshops, this may be your last chance for a long time. READ MORE
August 18th, 2020 | Posted in News
This past weekend I finally conducted my “Caricature Illustration Workshop” here in Minnesota. Originally scheduled for March 27-29 with 15 students, the pandemic caused me to reschedule to Aug 14-16th, and we ended up with only 6 people in the class. This was a different sort of workshop for me. We did a mock illustration project from start to finish, and I taught the class about narrative and problem solving, working within the limitations imposed by the job, composition, and the process from rough concept sketches through to final art. I also taught traditional dip pen/brush inking, and both my digital coloring and traditional watercolor… READ MORE
August 17th, 2020 | Posted in Monday MADness
Back in MAD #503 (May 2010) I did the art on a Desmond Devlin authored parody of the TV Show “The Big Bang Theory”… finished splash page above. As you can see, the splash was somewhat atypical of your usual MAD parody opening. Des had the article narrated by Albert Einstein, and the opening spread called for the traditional introductory caricatures of the cast to look like they’d been drawn on a blackboard by Einstein. I was not sure how I’d be able to make the caricatures look good by drawing them in white chalk lines. They would look like photo negatives… unless I used… READ MORE
August 16th, 2020 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I saw DC Comics just did another big round of layoffs… how does this affect MAD? A: Last week there was another bloodbath at DC Entertainment/Warner Bros where many long-time and/or high ranking executives and editors were shown the door. This after 2018’s purge of many vice-presidents and the firing of co-publisher Dan DiDio back in February. How does this affect MAD Magazine? Not much, since there really isn’t a MAD Magazine anymore. Prior to his latest round of layoffs and restructuring, MAD had already been turned into a publication of nothing but reprint material under a new cover and with a new Fold-In,… READ MORE
August 14th, 2020 | Posted in General
I used to have a fair number of art concessions businesses that operated in theme parks and tourist centers around the eastern half of the U.S. At one time I had locations in Atlanta, St. Louis (two there, actually), Agawam MA, New Orleans, and two here in Minnesota- Nickelodeon Universe, the theme park within the Mall of America, and Valleyfair, a seasonal theme park south of Minneapolis. Over the years I’ve slowly gotten out of that business, and now only have the two operations in Minnesota still going. Back on March 17th, Nickelodeon Universe shut down due to pandemic stay at home orders issued by… READ MORE
August 13th, 2020 | Posted in News
Yesterday the folks at ReedPop made an announcement that surprised absolutely no one, that New York Comic Con was not going to take place at the Javits Center as planned in 2020. Right now ReedPop is hosting a virtual comic con called “Metaverse“, which runs from today through August 16th. This online comic con includes panels, guests, exhibitors, cosplayers, and a a virtual “Artist’s Alley”. There will also be a virtual “NYCC” on the original dates of October 8-11th which will include a marketplace and, presumably, a vitrual NYCC Artist’s Alley. I will be participating in that one. Look for announcements from me leading up… READ MORE
