Tom's Mad Blog
September 13th, 2014 | Posted in General
A couple of weeks ago fellow caricaturist/illustrator Hamilton Cline dropped me a line to ask why I didn’t use Twitter Cards for my tweets, seeing as how most of my posts have images that would be a lot more interesting to look at than a simple URL would be. My answer was “What the $%#@ are ‘Twitter Cards’?” Well since then I have been trying to get this figured out. I’ve set up the proper code through a WordPress Plug-in (JP Twitter Cards). I have applied for a Twitter DEV account (not sure I ever got approved, actually). I have set up and validated several… READ MORE
September 12th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Remembering actor Richard Kiel, who passed away the other day at age 74. He memorably played the villain “Jaws” in two James Bond films back in the 70s, but had several other notable film and TV roles as well. READ MORE
September 11th, 2014 | Posted in News
Just a quick explanation and apology to any and all who, in the last two weeks or so, have ordered and are waiting for books, prints or original art to get shipped out to them. The last two weeks have been more than a little bit hectic for me, with multiple jobs all due including the longest MAD parody I have done since that nine page extravaganza “Harry Plodder and the Lamest of Sequels” in MAD #424 back in 2002. I often complain here about deadlines, but while they can and do get hairy they seldom get to the point where a couple of long… READ MORE
September 10th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s another sketch of a comedy legend: Carl Reiner! This is another preliminary sketch from a job I am working on featuring other old Jewish comedians like Mel Brooks. And no, I am not doing a print of caricatures of old Jewish comedians… the incomparable Drew Friedman has already done the definitive work on that. READ MORE
September 9th, 2014 | Posted in News
I’ll be a special guest at the Pittsgburgh Comicon later this month, Sept. 26th-28th. I don’t have an assigned space at the con quite yet, but I am going to be at a table somewhere and will have copies of my book, my two available limited edition prints “The Game is Afoot!” and “Bats in the Belfry” as well as assorted original MAD art and I will be doing commission sketches including caricatures and “Alfred as…” drawings. I’m also going to be doing a presentation on caricature at 4:00 PM on Friday the 26th, although the time for that may change. The show info: September… READ MORE
September 8th, 2014 | Posted in MAD Magazine
From MAD #471, Nov 2006, a two page feature called “When Video Games Become Religious” written by Jacob Lambert. The pencil roughs in the layout and the individual final art panels: Clicky to embiggen… Clicky to embiggen… Clicky to embiggen… READ MORE
September 7th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You are creating hundreds of pictures a year. As you work partly digital there are at least hundreds of files a year. Which order do you have for these files on your hard disk? Do you have one folder for each project? Do you have a folder for finished work, quasi a portfolio folder? Do you save all your files or do you delete most of them after some time? Do you have a standard procedure for your files (names, folders, etc.)? A: I don’t think it’s exactly “hundreds” of illustrations a year but it is a lot. I have three different areas where… READ MORE
September 6th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Now we are in the home stretch! It’s time to get coloring. Those of you who are looking for a tutorial on my painting techniques will be a little disappointed I’m afraid. In order to do that I need to save steps along the way, and I did not do that with this or any past job in anticipation of a tutorial. My apologies, but I will save those steps the next chance I get, and will put together a real tutorial on how I paint my line art soon. (did that years ago. See Here) In the meantime, here are the basic steps: When… READ MORE
