Richmond Illustration Inc.

Tom's Mad Blog

Dreaded Deadline Demon

January 17th, 2014 | Posted in General

It’s been a while since we saw this guy… READ MORE

Comic book super-legend Russ Heath will receive the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement award from the National Cartoonists Society at their annual Reuben Award Weekend this May in San Diego. It is a great honor going to one of the most influential and versatile comic artists of all time… a true giant of our industry. Congratulations, Russ! From the NCS Website: The National Cartoonists Society is very pleased to announce that legendary comic book artist Russ Heath will receive The Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual NCS Reuben Awards banquet in San Diego, California on May 24th, 2014. The award, named for Terry and… READ MORE

Sketch o’the Week- Touchdown!

January 15th, 2014 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

Sorry but I have to cop-out on this week’s SotW as I am frantically trying to finish up a big MAD job, among other things. Therefore this week’s sketch is a rough of a recent illustration from Penthouse, one of my ongoing series for the header of rocker Dave Navarro‘s advice column in the magazine. READ MORE

Right of Publicity and Parody

January 14th, 2014 | Posted in General

I got this email the other day from caricaturist Mike Giblin: I’ve been reading extensively on your blog (and other sources) about Caricature and the Right of Publicity, and though a lot of it still has my brain in knots I’m beginning to see the distinction in what’s advisable and what’s not. My question is to do with subject matter, specifically citing your Secret Agent Man artwork as an example. I understand that by offering the illustration as original artwork AND a limited edition print run, you’ve made a solid case for the fine art angle – and as such, there are no likely legal… READ MORE

Monday MADness!- MADvertising

January 13th, 2014 | Posted in Monday MADness

Back in 2001, much to the chagrin of many long-time fans, MAD began running advertisements in the magazine. Economic realities had to be faced, and the MAD team felt the magazine needed to be updated to color and better paper if they were to interest young readers. They needed revenues to do that and ads were the simplest solution. The concerns people had that MAD‘s ability to be impartial in it’s skewering of corporate America were proven to be unfounded… they went on doing what they’d always done with the same gleeful zeal no matter who was paying to put an ad in the magazine.… READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

January 12th, 2014 | Posted in General

Q: You write in your book and on your blog how important it is that everything in an illustration has the same style, look, and feel, for instance background people. How do you make something part of your universe, when you’ve never drawn it before? For instance a camel or a horse (like on the splash page of The Hunger Pains)? Do you need a lot of extra sketches or can you just draw everything right away with the help of some photo references? A: That’s a good question, I hadn’t ever really thought about it before. First off, the oft-given advice referred to above… READ MORE

MAD (The Magazine) about MAD (The TV Show)

January 10th, 2014 | Posted in General

Clicky to Embiggen… The MAD show on Cartoon Network aired their 100th episode in November, and to commemorate the event the show’s creator Kevin Shinick commissioned me to do a MAD Magazine style splash page in the “A MAD Peek Behind the Scenes of…” tradition featuring the show’s creative team. Everybody got a print of it for Christmas, and Kevin got the original inked art. Kevin wrote the jokes and gave me information on each of the folks in the scene to work with. This was a challenging project, because I had to to the layouts, header graphics and text and box placement as well… READ MORE

2013 NCS Divisional Awards Call for Entries

January 9th, 2014 | Posted in News

The National Cartoonists Society is starting it’s annual call for entries for consideration for their NCS Divisional Awards recognizing excellence in professional cartooning. As always, you DO NOT have to be a member of the NCS to have your work considered for a divisional award… all that is required is that the work be eligible as detailed below. Below you will find a list of the juries which will judge the categories, the jury chair and the address to which you will send your entry. As always, NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED, with the exception of the Online Comics divisions, which allows emailed PDF… READ MORE