Tom's Mad Blog
June 23rd, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness
This week’s Monday MADness is a look at the complete pencil roughs for MAD‘s parody of the TV show LOST, from MAD #453, May 2005, written by Dick Debartolo (Clicky any to embiggen): And if you are curious, here’s what the final art looked like: READ MORE
June 22nd, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Hey Tom! Looking back in your blog, I’ve noticed that occasionally you either re-do a sketch of a celebrity, or even state difficulty with a subject (Nathan Fillion I believe to be one of the more “challenging” subjects) But have you ever had a severe level of uncertainty with a subject? Any subjects that you couldn’t just get right no matter what?¬¨‚Ć Any more challenging subjects you would care to share about and how you overcame that? I can’t imagine you’d let an uncertain caricature be published to MAD… well maybe who knows? A: Every caricaturist occasionally struggles with some faces. It could be… READ MORE
June 21st, 2014 | Posted in News
I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere is a podcast about the greater world of Sherlock Holmes, including his influence in any and all media. I guess they must have been running out of interesting guests, because they asked me to be on the latest episode which just got posted today. I guess they liked me, because we did the interview twice. Well, actually we did it a second time because the first one got lost in a hard drive meltdown. My Sherlock Holmes connection is mostly about my being a pseudo Sherlockian (real Sherlockians have to earn the title) and having done art for a Sherlock… READ MORE
June 20th, 2014 | Posted in Freelancing
This was a recent column of mine in a recent edition of the National Cartoonists Society publication “The Cartoon!st”: One of the things I love the most about the NCS is that our members cover the gamut of all facets of professional cartooning. Syndicated comics, comic books, animation, web comics, book illustration, gag cartoons, greeting cards… you name it and some of our members do it. I find it fascinating to hear and learn about the trials and tribulations of the different ways people make a living in this industry. I do mostly freelance illustration, which is an exercise in feast, famine, panic, and anxiety.… READ MORE
June 19th, 2014 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
This one goes WAAAAY back… to 4th grade at Oregon Elementary School, Oregon, Wisconsin… And my favorite page by far: Always leave them wanting more! I haven’t improved as much as I thought since then… in fact I had been working for MAD for almost three years when I stopped using notebook paper for my pages. READ MORE
June 18th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
And the loser of the last “Game of Thrones” caricature sweepstakes is Pedro Pascal, who played Prince Oberyn “Red Viper” Martell. READ MORE
June 17th, 2014 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised, here is a sneak peek of my art from MAD #528’s parody of “Two Detectives”, written by Arnie Kogen: The splash page (Clicky to Embiggen…) What do you mean you “want to read the entire parody?” What does this look like, a furshlugginer library?!? Go out and buy the issue, putz! READ MORE
June 16th, 2014 | Posted in General
I’ve written here about the ongoing auction by the Cartoon Art Professionals Society to benefit the Sakai family. My contribution is now on the auction block (see above). It’s an ink and watercolor piece the will be part of the Darkhorse Comics special book, “THE SAKAI PROJECT; Celebrating 30 Years of Usagi Yojimbo”, Being release in July, 2014 (at San Diego Comic-Con) with all proceeds going to Stan & Sharon Sakai. If you have any interest, please go and bid as the money is going to a good cause. Stan’s wife Sharon is have serious health problems and any financial help they can be given… READ MORE