Tom's Mad Blog
November 3rd, 2017 | Posted in General
Some news on the workshop front: I’m announcing a workshop in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area! The dates are March 9th-11th, 2018 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Love Field-Dallas Market Center. As usual the workshop is limited to 12 students, takes place over three days and includes a bunch of swag and a ton of drawing and learning about caricatures. Beginners to pros welcome, check out the general workshop details here and the specifics or book your spot here. In other workshop news, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Seegen, Switzerland, are sold out. However the cartooning school in Switzerland that is organizing that workshop has asked… READ MORE
November 2nd, 2017 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Shameless Huckstering Dept. Today I am finally getting my shipment of copies of MAD #548 with my Stranger Things cover and art on Desmond Delvin‘s 7 page parody of the show. It’s available in the Studio Store, signed and everything and vastly overpriced. READ MORE
November 2nd, 2017 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
This is a poster illustration I did in 2007 for Teacher’s Discovery. They sold it for several years for posting in science classrooms. It features caricatures (and some gags) of famous inventors and scientists at a “Superbowl” type event, both in the field and in the crowd. The poster had a key as there are about 30 different scientists depicted and the rest are just extras, but I don’t have that key and can’t remember who some of the inventors are. This poster was really big, something like 30″ x 40″. READ MORE
November 1st, 2017 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Now that “Inktober” is finally over I thought I’d post an inked sketch. This is actually an old one from 2010 or so of Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn from the remake of “True Grit”, ball point pen on sketchbook paper. The original is available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
October 31st, 2017 | Posted in General
Seeing as how it’s Halloween, this zombie-themed announcement is well timed! Sitcomics recently announced the release date of Z-People #1, the humorous zombie comic written by Darin Henry for which I did the pencils and inks, as well as a look at the main cover art (pencils, inks and color by me) on their Facebook Page. That date is January 31st, 2018. In fact a number of Sitcomics’ giant-sized “Binge Books” will be released on this day with titles to be announced as the date nears. These Binge Books are 64-or-more page extravaganzas priced at only $3.99, and include main stories, short additional stories, gag… READ MORE
October 30th, 2017 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In late July I got a call from MAD art director Sam Viviano asking me if I was interested in doing the cover of issue #548, which would be a “Stranger Things” theme. I was in the middle of doing the art on Desmond Devlin‘s 7 page parody of “Stranger Things” at the time, so this was a no-brainer for me. Actually, ANY cover assignment for MAD is always a no-brainer. Covers jobs are rare as there are only six covers a year, and the brilliant Mark Fredrickson deservedly gets 99.9% of them. I had only ever done one other cover for the main magazine,… READ MORE
October 29th, 2017 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: In a lot of caricatures of President Trump, the illustrator will exaggerate the orange-ness of his skin. You’ve spoken and written a lot about exaggerating features, but in what situations is it acceptable to exaggerate color? I imagine someone who is drawn green around the gills (sick) or exceedingly red (angry or sunburned) could be humorous, but in other instances an exaggeration of color (specifically skin) could be deemed racially insensitive, for example. When is it important to match color as closely as possible, and when do you choose to exaggerate it? A: That’s an interesting question. I’d never really thought about it before. I’d… READ MORE
October 26th, 2017 | Posted in News
The publishing house Papersalt creates “gifts to inspire, empower and educate kids and families”. They just released a kid’s book called The Presidents with interesting facts about each of the 45 Presidents of the United States, illustrated with caricatures by yours truly. You might think you recognize these caricatures as color versions of the ones featured on my no-longer-available president’s poster… and you’d be right! Papersalt bought the rights to these images for this book, and had me color them for the project. Here are some sample pages: The book is 48 pages, 8.5″ x 5.5″ wire-o book on heavy-weight uncoated cover stock. If interested… READ MORE
