Tom's Mad Blog
September 30th, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
Occasionally this feature will have some info on what’s new at MAD… like this week! MAD keeps slowly entering the digital age with their iPad app by adding more and more of their classic issues for purchase and download. Last week they announced all the issues from 1969 were now available digitally. I’m not sure how they choose which years to add in… maybe they have a bunch of homeless guys from Times Square turning in the stuff they find in the alleyways in exchange for liquor and just going with what they get. Anyway, you can now get the following back issues on the… READ MORE
September 29th, 2013 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve read your articles on the evil of doing work-for-hire art. Isn’t MAD work-for-hire? Why the double standard? A: It’s true, I have railed about the inadvisability of work-for-hire agreements, which are agreements between the artist and the client wherein the client owns not only the copyrights to the work, but all the originals and every scrap of every concept or idea you did for that project, forever. Usually this is not a very good deal for the artist, because that work can become a cash cow for the client with no further payment to the artist necessary. That said, there are some exceptions… READ MORE
September 27th, 2013 | Posted in News
“D’Oh!” Labels added by me (digitally) As The Lovely Anna and I travel through Italy, I have noticed an odd phenomenon that I have been wondering about… almost every walk up shop that sells alcohol carries “Duff” Beer, the fictional beer of choice of Homer Simpson from the long-running animated TV series ‘The Simpsons”. That got me wondering… do Europeans think that Americans actually LIKE Duff Beer, which as far as I knew in real life was nothing more than a gag label beer in the U.S.? Or, is ‘The Simpsons” popular enough in Europe marketing-wise that Europeans will actually buy this beer despite it… READ MORE
September 26th, 2013 | Posted in General
I had much better luck in Florence than Venice finding caricaturists. We found a square with almost all portrait and caricaturists right in front of the Uffizi Gallery, and several more around the Piazza del Duomo. It takes a special kind of guts (or stupid) to sell your artwork only feet away from some of the greatest works of art ever created, but street caricaturists are seldom accused of being timid. That Madonna is a Kr?¬?ger I’ve seen that Roberto Benigni somewhere… The Connery I believe is a Vizcarra… The same Benigni and the same Jackson… not sure where that one is from either. That… READ MORE
September 25th, 2013 | Posted in General
I thought, just for fun, I’d look for street caricaturists while on my trip through Italy and report back on a couple of things, including: If they have any stolen caricature samples up on their display (mine or anyone else’s I recognize) If they are any good I’d include some pictures and get my caricature drawn in each city we visit, those being Venice, Florence and Rome. Here’s my report on Venice’s caricature artist community: Venice Caricature Grade: F Ordinarily I’d never give a live caricaturist less than a “D”, and I’d only give them that low a grade if they had nothing but ripped… READ MORE
September 25th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is a digital study I did as an element for a job that I’ll share sometime soon (whenever it’s been released). A quick sketch of artist Salvador Dali. READ MORE
September 23rd, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
Occasionally MAD asks me to step outside the box and do something that is very different from my usual style of art. In honor of Apple’s release of iOS 7 last week, here is some art from one of those assignments. This appeared in MAD #463, March 2006 and was written by Russ Cooper (clicky on some to embiggen…): Above are the pencil sketches. I did them separately and then scanned and placed them in the color layout, and erased out the white so the editors would get a feel for the look. Here are the finals: READ MORE
September 22nd, 2013 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have really enjoyed following your blog for sometime now and waited with bated breath for your book to come out. It is nothing short of a masterpiece!¬¨‚Ć Your book is chock full of great drawings and instruction. I know that there is no substitute for Practice. My question is… What methods would you recommend for practicing? Would you find a caricature you admire and practice it over and over? Would you practice individual features over and over? What tips could you give on the best way to get the most out of one’s practice time? A: Great question. Thanks for the kind words… READ MORE
