Tom's Mad Blog
November 15th, 2018 | Posted in General
One of the blog posts I get the most responses and questions about is this article I wrote back in 2006 about the “right of publicity”, which is a celebrity/famous person’s right to protect the value of their likeness… it’s a kind of copyright of their face. Obviously this is something caricaturists are concerned with. Can an artist do a caricature of a celebrity and sell it, and not get into trouble over it with the celebrity in question? If you read the article the answer is, as with most questions about the law, “it depends”. The other day I got an email asking about… READ MORE
November 14th, 2018 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I figured it was unavoidable to not draw Stan Lee for the Sketch o’the Week. Rest in peace, Stan! READ MORE
November 13th, 2018 | Posted in General
After his passing yesterday, it seems like everyone is posting their story of where/how they met the late Stan Lee, so I though I’d post my Stan Lee Story… I don’t have one. I never met or talked to the man, unless you count peeing next to him in adjacent urinals at a Minneapolis comic book show. Of course, you just stare straight ahead like the tiles in front of you are the most fascinating design you’ve ever seen when you are doing your business at a urinal. Conversation is not encouraged. I have drawn Stan into MAD a lot, though. I gave him a… READ MORE
November 12th, 2018 | Posted in General
Thanks for all the years of Excelsior, Stan! READ MORE
November 12th, 2018 | Posted in Monday MADness
I’m in LA right now having come in to teach a workshop over last weekend and to attend a memorial celebrating the life of the one-of-a-kind MADman Nick Meglin. I brought along the above sketch cover of Nick I did for MAD/EC historian, art collector and longtime good friend of Nick’s, Grant Geissman, who commissioned it from me at San Diego Comic Con back in July. I took my time. It was a wonderful tribute to Nick, full of laughs, a few tears, and some great memories of a man who might be one of the most unsung contributors to the world of humor ever.… READ MORE
November 11th, 2018 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I love your “Dracula” print, but you forgot to include Gerard Butler, who played him in “Dracula 2000”, and what is Grandpa Munster doing in there? A: I get this or similar questions especially at comic cons, usually from some smug know-it-all that thinks they are being clever and catching me screwing up somehow. I didn’t forget to include Gerard Butler (although I wish I could forget I ever saw “Dracula 2000”), I left him out on purpose. I also left out Udo Kier, and John Carradine, and Lorne Green and most of the other 77 actors who have played Dracula in films or… READ MORE
November 9th, 2018 | Posted in General
My LA Workshop starts today through Sunday, class illustration above. I currently have one spot available in my upcoming Phoenix, Orlando and Las Vegas workshops, and two spots in Atlanta. Grab them while they are still available! READ MORE
November 8th, 2018 | Posted in News
Cartoonists! Comic book artists! Animators! Graphic Novelists! Etc! It’s time to get an Artists Alley table at the NCSFest International Comic Arts Festival taking place May 17-19th in beautiful Huntington Beach, California! What’s this all about, you say? Not another comic con?!? Nope, not another comic con. This festival is going to be a very different animal than the same old comic cons. This is a festival patterned after European events like Angouleme and Lyon in France, The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in the UK, and Lucca in Italy. These festivals are not tradeshows held in cavernous convention centers. They are celebrations of the… READ MORE
