Tom's Mad Blog
June 8th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: A few issues ago you had two different pieces in the same issue of MAD. Has that ever happened before? A: The issue Richard is referring to is MAD #525, which included both the Arnie Kogen scribed parody of “The Following” I did the art for, and the “Abysmal House” piece (written by Jay Rath) I drew for the “MAD 20”. Having more than one piece is the same issue is a rare thing for me… for any illustrator really other than Sergio. More often than not these days I am doing “continuity” features for the magazine (i.e. the movie and TV parodies), and… READ MORE
June 6th, 2014 | Posted in General
The Lovely Anna pointed out on Facebook the other day that 21 years ago our oldest daughter, The Animated Elizabeth, started an early special education program through our local public school district. Since that day we’ve gone through over two decades of shivering at the school bus stop, choir concerts, plays, musicals, awards ceremonies, lock-ins, class trips, and the graduations of Elizabeth (sort of), and daughters The Dramatic Victoria and The Effervescent Gabrielle. That all ends tomorrow when our youngest, Number One Son Thomas, graduates from Eastview High School with honors. He’s off this fall to St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, to study computer… READ MORE
June 5th, 2014 | Posted in News
This Saturday a real gem of a gallery show of original comic art opens at the Kenosha Public Museum in Kenosha, WI… and when I say a “gem” I really mean it. The show is an extension of the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning, an annual weekend featuring guest cartoonists doing panels, presentation, workshops and meet and greets organized by Anne Hambrock. Anne’s husband John is a cartoonist who does the syndicated daily strip “The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee”, and the Hambrocks live in the picturesque little town of Kenosha on the shores of Lake Michigan. This is why this small Wisconsin town hosts some… READ MORE
June 4th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Clicky to embiggen… Better late than never today… and we continue our series of caricatures¬¨‚Ćfrom “Game of Thrones”. This week our subject is Kit Harington aka Jon Snow. I met Mr. Harington in person last year at the Warner Bros./DC Comics party at Comic-Con. You would not believe how tiny he is. The internet claims he is 5’8″ but I think that would be accurate only if he was standing on a box. Maybe weighed 140 soaking wet. If it wasn’t for Peter Dinklage Harington would be the shortest guy on the set. That’s neither here or there, but it is funny how easy it… READ MORE
June 3rd, 2014 | Posted in General
Forgive me as I digress a little about working out. Back to art on Wednesday. Last week while wasting time on Facebook I ran across a link to this post about the evils of cross-fit training. In the article, the author derides cross-fit training as being unsafe, unhealthy, leaving you wide open to injury, and being in general a very bad idea. The Facebook post was followed by a lot of people agreeing and saying things like “why would I want to fail everyday?”, “I ripped my arm out of the socket doing cross-fit!”, and the ever popular “cross-fit sucks!!!”. For those of you who… READ MORE
June 2nd, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness
After the release this weekend of Angelina Jolie‘s new movie “Malificent”, I thought for this week’s Monday MADnessI’d post a look at the art from another film where she had to wear prosthetics… but not horns. Here’s “Lotta Crotch: Bazoom Raider” from MAD #410, October 2001, written by Desmond Devlin. Clicky any to embiggen… READ MORE
June 1st, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Hi Tom – I’ve been struggling with the following for over a year now, possibly without realizing it! But I now see we have 2 (or maybe 3 options!) when it comes to creating a caricature. 1. We can keep the head shape as an accurate representation with little or no exaggeration – after all, we are engaged in the quest for likeness (so this is the most important thing – when we see someone from a distance, we recognize them, without seeing their features in detail). We can THEN exaggerate the features – make the eyes smaller, the nose more bulbous, the ears… READ MORE
May 30th, 2014 | Posted in General
Official Reuben Weekend Art by Ed Steckley This past weekend the National Cartoonists Society, an august organization I am privileged to be current President of, had its annual Reuben Awards Weekend in not-so-sunny San Diego, CA… well, we did see some sun on the final day of the festivities, but for most of it we experienced what native San Diegans call “May Gray”. That hardly got us down, however. The weekend was a lot of fun. They usually are, but this one seemed to be turned up a notch. Most of the events took place at the beautiful Omni hotel right at the start of… READ MORE
