Tom's Mad Blog
March 30th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve read several “how-to” articles on inking comics – including your excellent 2-part inking tutorial -¬¨‚Ć and there is great information out there. However, what I am having trouble finding is how an artist should care for their brushes and pens. Not only when one is done working with them for the day, but, also what to do with the tools during the actual inking process? For example: are you constantly swirling your brush in a cup of water in-between strokes? Does water work for cleaning permanent ink – or is something else needed? A: Great question. You do have to care for your… READ MORE
March 28th, 2014 | Posted in News
I just wanted to say a few more things about the fantastic new National Cartoonists Society website that just went live in the wee hours this morning. The design and programming were done by the very talented Joe McGarry, and alone with the new look comes a lot of news about the NCS and it’s continuing foray into cyberspace. New Design- The look and feel of the new site is really terrific, and Joe deserves a huge congratulations for his vision and hard work. Little touches like the dynamic sizing of the full-width windows, the “word balloon” inserted teaser and link in the slideshow, the… READ MORE
March 28th, 2014 | Posted in General
The 2013 Divisional Awards Nominees just got announced… and on a brand new NCS website! Gon on over and check out the new site and the list of nominees complete with sample of their work. Here’s the complete list: Editorial Cartoons Clay Bennett Adam Zyglis Mike Ramirez Newspaper Illustration Bob Eckstein Miel Prudencio Ma Dave Whammond Feature Animation Mike Giamo: Production Design “Frozen”- Disney Hayao Miyazaki: Director, “The Wind Rises”- Disney Jonathan del Val: Animator of Lucy character, “Despicable Me 2”- Illumination TV Animation Craig McCracken for “Wander Over Yonder” – Disney Paul Rudish for Disney Channel’s “Mickey Mouse” shorts – Disney Douglas Sloan &… READ MORE
March 26th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Better late than never today I guess. Continuing with my “House of Cards” theme here is the fetching Kate Mara. READ MORE
March 25th, 2014 | Posted in News
I should have mentioned Friday that a new batch of original art and other goodies got posted on the benefit auction for the Sakai family last week. Every Thursday they add new items, so if nothing strikes your fancy check back every week. The new batch includes some pretty awesome originals from the likes of Bruce Timm, Eddie Campbell, Dave Berg (an original “The Lighter Side of…”), Sergio, and lots more. My piece is not up for auction yet but I will let everybody know when it is. Go. Bid. Now. Help the Sakais. READ MORE
March 24th, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness
This week’s Monday MADness is a look at one of the craziest crowd scenes I’ve ever done for MAD– “MAD Exposes Who’s Thinking What at the Obama Inauguration” from issue #498, February 2009. This is the pencil rough I did to send to the MAD editors for review before I redrew the whole thing much larger, inked and colored it for the final. You’ll probably recognize a number of politicians, pundits, talking heads and other celebrities even in the rough, as I did take a stab at most of their caricatures even at this initial stage. The original final art for this splash is a… READ MORE
March 23rd, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: This really has nothing to do with art but more of a personal question. I was just wondering if you’re a bit of a celebrity in your town (or part of town) and if you get recognized or receive silly comments from people when you’re at the post office or pharmacy. Have you ever been “caught” perusing a Mad magazine at a store? A: Nope, no one around here has a clue what I do. Only our immediate neighbors know I’m a cartoonist, and only because they asked because they were afraid I was a drug dealer being that I was home all the… READ MORE
March 21st, 2014 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I’ve been blogging about the upcoming run of MAD variant covers of DC Comics titles all week as they were released on various websites (see the complete run here). I thought I’d show a little of the process involved in the creation of my variant cover for Batman/Superman #30. The concept: The guys at MAD had some pretty specific things they wanted with this cover… in fact they wanted me to do a sort of take-off of a previous cover of an issue of Batman: The basic gag was that, rather than holding a set of chattering joke-dentures, “Alfred/Joker” would be holding his actual teeth… READ MORE
