Richmond Illustration Inc.

Tom's Mad Blog

The Dreaded Deadline Demon

February 11th, 2014 | Posted in General

This went from 0 to 160 overnight around here… READ MORE

Monday MADness! MAD #526 Cover!

February 10th, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness

An exclusive first look at the cover of MAD #526, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly! The cover artist is Mark Fredrickson. In this issue I did the art for the “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” spoof as MAD let slip last week. I will post a sneak peek of that when the issue is released. READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag: Copyrights on Commissions?

February 9th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag

Q: If you are doing a commission like your James Bond commission, which copyrights does your customer get? Does the customer, who gets the James Bond original also get all copyrights? In this case he could use your art for instance as a book cover or scan it and use it on his homepage etc.. And what about the original MAD art you are also selling: I think you wrote on your blog, that MAD has all copyrights but does not bother about the originals so you can sell them. But doesn’t the owner of the original art also get all copyrights? A: The answers… READ MORE

There’s a Zucker Born Every Minute Dept.

February 7th, 2014 | Posted in MAD Magazine

¬¨‚Ä†Clicky to visit the MAD website If you don’t regularly visit the MAD Magazine website you are missing out on some timely and funny stuff. Since they relaunched it a couple of years ago (originally called “The Idioitcal”, a title I loved but which they seem to have dropped) they have been terrific at posting daily pieces that give the MAD treatment to in-the-moment subjects, something the production time of a print magazine makes impossible. The one above is a perfect example. Just hours after the “Facebook Video” thing started happening the guys at MAD jumped on it with this, posted yesterday. New Jersey Governor… READ MORE

Tales from the Theme Park #6

February 6th, 2014 | Posted in Tales from the Theme Park

The Craziest Theme Request Ever… When you do live caricature, especially in a theme park or retail setting where speed is not as important as it is when doing parties or events, you get a lot of people asking to be drawn doing this or that. There are many standards like “as a baseball player” or “singing karaoke” or “riding a motorcycle”. I encourage my artists to charge a few bucks extra when the theme being requested is something that will take more than a minute of extra time… they are paid on commission after all. Now, these are caricatures and supposed to be funny,… READ MORE

Sketch o’the Week- The War Doctor!

February 5th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

I give up. Due to popular request from some very obsessive Doctor Who fans, I give you Doctor 8.5 aka The War Doctor, as portrayed by John Hurt. I will not be drawing David Tennant‘s hand, which having regenerated in an episode apparently counts as an individual Doctor regeneration, nor any of the actors who filled in for original doctors who passed away, nor Peter Cushing from the separate film versions. Thank you. Oh, and here’s the whole lineup, with sketches inserted: ¬¨‚Ä†Clicky to Embiggen… READ MORE

On the Drawing Board- 2/4/14

February 4th, 2014 | Posted in General

Clicky to Embiggen… The drawing board is heating up in the cold of our Minnesota winter. Lot’s of regular client work on the board as well as a few different projects: Marlin Co workplace poster– My usual monthly assignment. Last month’s art above. Comic book project– I’m really digging in to this one right now, and it will usurp a lot of my time over the next two months. It’s a 45 page comic written by a veteran TV comedy writer. I’m doing all the art (pencils, inks and color) on interior and cover. His plan is to have them in print in time for… READ MORE

Monday MADness! NASCAR!

February 3rd, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness

Apparently the 2014 NASCAR season starts this month… I don’t know for sure because I couldn’t care less about NASCAR. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t make fun of it, which is exactly what Desmond Devlin and I did in MAD #427 back in March 2003 with “Mad’s Proposed Rule Changes for the Upcoming NASCAR Season”. Here’s the final art for that two page feature (clicky any to embiggen): And here’s a little bonus. Especially way back in my earliest days with MAD, art director Sam Viviano would often send me what he called “doodles” along with the print layouts to set up the art… READ MORE