Tom's Mad Blog
July 14th, 2013 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Much of my illustration commissions remain of the personal gift variety, and therein lies the problem. I’ve always tended to charge ‘per person’, with an hourly studio rate added based on detail. This is no problem with two or even three people in one illustration, but as you can imagine the price very quickly jumps up when it’s several folk, or perhaps even a group. I subsequently find myself A) feeling bad for quoting private individuals such a high price, even though it’s indicative of the extensive work involved, and/or B) not hearing back from clients who, not unreasonably, balk at paying so much… READ MORE
July 12th, 2013 | Posted in News
Clicky to Embiggen… Here’s the finished art for my Doctor Who limited edition print. There were some printing hassles, but everything’s ironed out and the final prints will be available for ordering starting next week Wednesday, both here and at Comic-Con, where I will have the actual prints in hand. Due to some odd requirements for the print run (weird size, special format, etc), I’ll actually be producing 450 of these prints, rather than 250. Here’s the pricing and availability: “The Doctor is In” Limited Edition Print 450 signed and numbered prints 11″ x 27″, elegant matte finish heavyweight professional print $25.00 plus $3 US… READ MORE
July 12th, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Popmatters.com has an exclusive first look at the cover of MAD #522, featuring the art of the incomparable Sergio Aragon?¬©s! That link also contains a sneak peek at some interior features of #522 including Al Jaffee‘s Fold-In and an interview with MAD editor John Ficarra. That interview reveals that the issue contains a parody of “The Hobbit” entitled “The Slobbit”. It does not tell you that the art for said parody was by yours truly… probably because John is embarrassed to admit they still give me work. Sergio has done two other MAD covers, way back in 1979 for #210 and in 1990 for #293.… READ MORE
July 11th, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Clicky to Embiggen Found this and several other images of “thanks for your letter” response cards from the folks at E.C. Comics (that’s Bill Gaines‘ line of horror/war/etc. comics including “Tales from the Crypt”, “Vault of Horror”, “Weird Science and eventually “MAD”) on cartoonist Jeff Overturf’s site via Doug Gilford’s MAd Cover Site Facebook page. This one was drawn by Will Elder, but follow that link to see ones by John Severin and Wally Wood. Very cool, I didn’t even know these existed. READ MORE
July 11th, 2013 | Posted in News
Successful cartooning in the digital world from rendrag Frequent readers of The MAD Blog may have noticed in the last week the presence of something not seen here in a long time… ads. If these bother you I apologize…the decision to put them back in after so many years was not made lightly. In the end the really insightful presentation on “Successful Cartooning in the Digital World” by Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary fame embedded above made me realize that not having them was dumb. They are unobtrusive, do not interfere with the enjoyment of the content on the site ad, and although the money… READ MORE
July 10th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
So my Doctor Who limited edition print is in production, and I’ll be debuting it next week at the start of Comic Con. I’ll have plenty of them with me to sell there, but I’ll also be taking orders here as well. There will be 250 regular, signed and number limited editions for $25 plus shipping and a “special” edition of 11 that includes the individual original inked artwork of each doctor that corresponds to his number (i.e. print #4 comes with the original of Tom Baker aka Doctor number 4), which will set you back $75 plus shipping. Just a heads up for those… READ MORE
July 9th, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine
On August 1st I will be in St. Simons Island, GA, attending the opening reception of the Jack Davis retrospective show “Jack Davis: From the Beginning” and taking part in a panel discussion on Jack’s career and his influence on humorous illustration. This all takes place beginning at 5:00 pm at the Glynn Art Association building. The panel will include myself, longtime MAD editor Nick Meglin and illustrator/cartoonist Jack Pittman. We’ll be discussing all things Jack. This is a ticketed event with limited seating…you can visit this page for more info. There are also plenty of free events throughout the weekending, including a presentation on… READ MORE
July 8th, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
This week I’m sharing a peek at a piece I did waaaaay back in MAD #416, April 2002. It was called “Their Team & Your Team”, written by J. Prete. The first image below is not the final spread but the original layout with my art dropped in… the actual piece had some minor changes to the copy… like actual credits for the writer and I. This was one of only four features I did for MAD that were in black and white, and one of only two I was assigned to do in black and white AFTER the magazine switched to full color permanently.… READ MORE
