Richmond Illustration Inc.

Tom's Mad Blog

Monday MADness- iToons!

August 3rd, 2020 | Posted in Monday MADness

Today’s Monday MADness is a look at a different sort of assignment I did for MAD #463, March 2006. Written by Russ Cooper. READ MORE

Q: I’ve seen you say as a freelancer you never know when or from where your next job will come, and that it’s tough to turn down any paying jobs. Does that mean you will do any job that comes along? Are there some jobs you would turn down for personal or other reasons? A: I’ve been lucky in the 30 plus years I’ve been a freelance illustrator I have managed to keep enough work on my drawing board to afford to be a little picky with the jobs that come in (note emphasis on the adverb “a little”). Still there are some reasons for… READ MORE

“Live Style” Commissions

July 31st, 2020 | Posted in General

Here’s a couple of the “Live Caricature” style commissions I’m doing after my virtual San Diego Comic Con event last weekend. I’ve got a LOOOONG list of these and MAD cover commissions. It’s going to take me a while to get them all done. I’ll post a few every now and then. If you missed out on getting one, don’t worry. I cannot imagine that New York Comic Con will actually take place in October, so I will likely be doing another virtual Artist’s Alley table October 8-11th. READ MORE

Illustration Throwback Thursday: Achmed Jr!

July 30th, 2020 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday

Back in 2011 I helped superstar ventriloquist Jeff Dunham design a new dummy for his show. The character was the son of his popular “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” character, named “A.J.” aka “Achmed Jr., the Almost Dead Terrorist”. The idea was that he was supposed to be a typical smart ass teenager who wasn’t quite dead and isn’t really interested in being a terrorist, which exasperates his father. Here’s some of the other art from the process: I’ve actually done a number of concept designs for Jeff, but only a few have actually become parts of his act. He has a lot of ideas for… READ MORE

Sketch o’the Week- Salma Hayek!

July 29th, 2020 | Posted in Daily Coronacature

Here’s my take on the beautiful Salma Hayek. She’s got a lot of jaw area with a small mouth, so there’s a lot of real estate at the bottom of her head shape, which in turn makes her forehead seem smaller. READ MORE

Commercial Observer Cover!

July 28th, 2020 | Posted in Freelancing

I did the art for the cover of this week’s Commercial Observer, a New York City real estate news publication I’ve done a couple of covers for. This was a really fast turnaround job I managed to squeeze in between a bunch of other jobs last week. This is a mock up of the final cover, thus the placeholder text. The issue came out today. READ MORE

Monday MADness: Fake Covers!

July 27th, 2020 | Posted in MAD Magazine

Back in the fall of 2000 MAD published issue #400, which was a special full color issue on nice paper stock. I had just had my first piece appear in the issue before, and I was surprised to get any assignment for such a big milestone issue. One of the features was called “The Untold History of MAD” which was a sort of timeline with gags from the magazine’s long life. I was one of the artists who did some “covers we didn’t use” from each decade. These printed really small in the magazine. These were described as a double cover issue printed the morning… READ MORE

That’s a Wrap! Thank You!

July 26th, 2020 | Posted in General

Wow, I have a LOT of drawing to do!!! If you have not heard from me about your commission I should be getting an email to you shortly. Then I have to draw draw draw! While you can always order any of my prints or books anytime in the Studio Store, I’m closing my commissions until next time! I seriously doubt we’ll see another major comic-con this year, so I will do this all again during the weekend of New York Comic Con in October, unless by some miracle they actually hold the convention in NYC. READ MORE