Tom's Mad Blog
March 10th, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness
Today’s Monday MADness is a look at the pencil roughs for a features entitled “America’s Next Top Mobster”, which was a mash-up of “The Sopranos” and “American;s Next Top Model” written by Desmond Devlin and appearing in MAD #482, October 2007. Clicky any to embiggen… As you can see my pencils got a lot looser on the last page, where I literally have circles for heads sometimes and only impart the very basic information for the MAD staff to review. Likely I was running short on time and I wanted to get these to the editors so I could move on to the finals, but… READ MORE
March 9th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you have a standard freelance contract or agreement you use with all your clients? A: Yes and no. I do have a standard illustration contract/agreement I use with many clients, but not all. Many clients have their own agreements they have their illustrators sign with specific terms they need. In that case I sign theirs and do not need mine, as they both serve the same purpose: spelling out the copyright agreement and other terms for use of the illustration they are contracting me to create. Of course, I have to read those carefully to make sure I know what I am agreeing… READ MORE
March 7th, 2014 | Posted in General
These Reuben Award illustrations are something I have been doing for quite a few years now, ever since I was approached by then NCS prez Steve McGarry about doing something for the 2003 Reuben Awards in San Fransisco. Sometimes the art was used on the official Reuben T-Shirt, and sometimes it was for the brochure, and once or twice for both. Anyway I thought it would be fun to post a gallery of the Reubens art I have done over the years… it also makes for a nice record of the guest speakers most years, although some years they depicted the award winners/Reuben nominees instead:… READ MORE
March 6th, 2014 | Posted in Tales from the Theme Park
This story actually comes not from drawing at a theme park but from doing a state fair. I didn’t do many of those but for a couple of years in the early 90’s I would pack up my gear and a 10×10 tent and drive to Oklahoma to do a state fair. The fair lasted for 17 days, during which I became an honorary carnie… except I had all my teeth. To be fair, most carnies also have all their teeth, but they keep them in a jar on their dashboard whereas all of mine are still in my mouth… but I digress. Doing fairs… READ MORE
March 5th, 2014 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Art by Hermann Mejia courtesy of CBR.com In April of last year DC Comics did a series of “MAD” variant covers for thirteen of their “New 52” titles done by the Usual Gang of Idiots. They are doing a follow up series this year, but this time on 21 different titles! CBR has an exclusive first look at a couple of the covers, including the one above for Detective Comics #30 by Hermann Mejia. Check out a bigger version of the Mejia cover and cover art by Al Jaffee and John Kerschbaum on CBR.com. Here are the titles getting the MAD treatment this year: JUSTICE… READ MORE
March 5th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I’m traveling right now and unable to do a new sketch for this week. Here is the rough sketch for a recent workplace poster job. READ MORE
March 4th, 2014 | Posted in News
We interrupt the sharing of potentially useful or entertaining content on this blog for some shameless huckstering! This past weekend I added a bunch of original art for sale in The Studio Store. Included are some not so cheap original pages from MAD, but also a few relatively cheap sketches. Well… okay… it’s ALL overpriced but that goes without saying. The MAD pages are from the parody of “The Avengers”, and this pencil drawing that was then digitally colored for the “MAD 20” piece “Abysmal House”: Among those sketches for sale are both my recent “sketch o’the week” drawings of: John Hurt Peter Capaldi Meryl… READ MORE
March 3rd, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness
This weeks Monday MADness is a look at the pencil roughs from a piece called “You Can Write the Next American Idol Single!” written by Desmond Devlin, which appeared in MAD #466, June 2006. Clicky any to embiggen: And here’s how the final art looked: READ MORE
