Richmond Illustration Inc.

Tom's Mad Blog

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 28th, 2013 | Posted in General

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving… I hope you are spending it with family and friends, like it was meant to be! READ MORE

An Open Letter to all Cartoonists: This is a wonderful time of year for most of us. Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that isn’t about commercialism, selling toys or candy, or giving presents… it’s about the gathering of family and friends to enjoy a meal together and give thanks for the things that are important in life…health, family, community and any other blessings we might be lucky enough to have been granted in the last year. For some people, the things they are thankful for can seem very distant in the face of the challenges life has placed in their path. As with any… READ MORE

The “MAD 20” 2013 Edition Cover Sneak Peek

November 27th, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine

Exclusive first look courtesy of perezhilton.com. No doubt more sneak peeks of MAD’s “20 Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2013” to follow on various websites. I can neither confirm or deny I did the art on “Dumb Thing #1”, nor that it has to do with our current U.S. Congress, nor that perezhilton.com is one of the 20 dumbest things of the year… Fa Fa Fa! Cover art by Mark Frederickson. READ MORE

Sketch o’the Week- JJ Abrams!

November 27th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

This week’s subject is superstar director JJ Abrams. JJ is a huge fan of MAD Magazine, so there is clearly something wrong with him. However, he makes great movies and TV shows, and I recently did a little project for him and sent this sketch to him as a thank you along with the original art. At some point I will be able to share the art I did for him… it was a sort of personal commission so nothing as exciting as a Star Wars illustration. I did ask to be paid for the work by being cast as a Jedi in the next… READ MORE

Cartoonists in Boise

November 26th, 2013 | Posted in News

Front row L to R: Steve Moore, Jeff Myers, Rick Kirkman, Marcus Hamilton. Back row L to R: Mason Mastroianni, Paul Combs, Jeff Keane, me The Lovely Anna and I spent this past weekend in beautiful Boise, ID, in support of one of the most unique and wonderful programs to help our wounded warriors in action today- The Wyakin Warriors Foundation. I wrote a bit about it last week before we left. A Wyakin is a Native American “spirit guide” that legend says appears to a young warrior during a rite of passage where he is left alone on a mountainside to await a vision.… READ MORE

Monday MADness- The Hunger Games!

November 25th, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness

In honor of the opening of the latest “Hunger Games” film, here’ a look at 2012’s parody of the first movie. As always, clicky images to embiggen. The writer of the parody was Desmond Devlin. First pencil rough Above is the first pencil rough of the splash. This was a complex splash, because all the word boxes were being spoken by one person (Stanley Tucci’s host character “Cesear Flickerman”), there were a LOT of word boxes, necessitating three rows, and most of them described a character that needed to be near the box that describes them. So, I did something I seldom do . .… READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

November 24th, 2013 | Posted in General

Q: In your book you address the problem of nondescript, ‘standard’ faces, and mention finding ‘one outstanding feature. Just one’. My question concerns the opposite scenario – where a subject may have numerous ‘deviations from the norm’ … I suppose we should be driven by a quest for likeness, no matter what. But is this a situation where subjectivity comes into play? A: Caricaturists have a term for a face like you describe… it’s called a “Field Day”. I understand what you are saying, and it is true that if a face has a lot of features begging for exaggeration you can be confronted with… READ MORE

2nd Annual Wyakin Warrior’s Guardian Ball

November 22nd, 2013 | Posted in News

Artwork by Paul Combs The Lovely Anna and I are on our way to Boise, ID today to attend the 2nd annual Wyakin Warriors Guardian Ball, along with a gaggle of other cartoonists as seen in the illustration above, drawn by illustrator and my USO cartooning tour comrade Paul Combs. Attending this year are: Bill Amend (FoxTrot) Jeff Bacon (Broadside/Greenside) Todd Clark (Lola) Paul Combs¬¨‚Ä†(Firefighter cartoonist) Marcus Hamilton (Dennis the Menace) Jeff Keane (The Family Circus) Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues) Mason Mastroianni (B.C.) Glenn McCoy (The Flying McCoys) Steve Moore (In the Bleachers) Jeff Myers¬¨‚Ä†(The Simpsons) Moi The ball is a black tie affair/fundraiser for… READ MORE