Tom's Mad Blog
April 30th, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The latest in MAD‘s series of “Mad’s Greatest Artists” featuring Dave Berg just became available for pre-order on Amazon. From the Amazon page’s description: Included in this magnificent collection are some of the greatest works from Dave Berg…one of MAD Magazine’s most popular writers/artists. The material will be presented chronologically and interspersed throughout with rough sketches, a rare 1970 interview, an introduction and portrait of Berg by well-known American illustrator Drew Friedman, a “growing up with Dave Berg” essay by his daughter Nancy Berg, newly illustrated versions of classic Berg strips by several noteworthy cartoonists, and much more. I am one of the cartoonists who… READ MORE
April 29th, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
I occasionally get the question “What was the first piece you ever did for MAD“? which is not an easy one to answer. The full story is here, but the quick answer is a feature piece called “MAD‘s Cable TV Viewing Odds”, which I was assigned in June of 2000 but did not actually see print until MAD #406, June 2001. In between my doing that job and it seeing print I did several pieces for the MAD website and five jobs for the magazine including my first two TV/movie parodies. I recently ran across a dusty DVD with some old jobs archived, including that… READ MORE
April 28th, 2013 | Posted in General
Q: After working for my [caricature concession] company for four years, I might be in a position this year where I’ll be in charge of interviewing and hiring, as well as training. So here is my question: When hiring new artists for your theme park concessions, do you have any thoughts on: 1) Weeding out the right person who has enough artistic potential as well as the ability to engage a guest in¬¨‚Ć a pleasing manner while they draw, 2) Any tips and techniques for training these people to become better at engaging the guests? I would definitely like tips or drawing techniques I could… READ MORE
April 26th, 2013 | Posted in News
The fourth printing of The Mad Art of Caricature! arrived today and is back in stock! The book has a ton of extremely positive reviews on Amazon (88 as of this post), but there has been one complaint made by a just a few people…apparently on some copies the binding has come loose and pages have fallen out. I’ve only had a handful of complaints about it out of many thousands sold, so I suspect the problem only affects some copies where perhaps the glue was thin or some other factor weakened the binding on part of the run. That’s not unheard of… in the… READ MORE
April 25th, 2013 | Posted in News
The National Cartoonists Society Foundation announced the 2013 recipient of the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship today. From the NCSF website: 2013 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship Winner April 23rd, 2013 The National Cartoonists Society Foundation (NCSF) is happy to announce the winner of the 2013 Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship – Charlotte Mao. Charlotte is an illustration major at Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota FL. She was chosen from over 65 applicants for the award, which includes a $5,000 scholarship and a trip to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award weekend in Pittsburgh in May. The scholarship applicants submitted eight examples of their work… READ MORE
April 24th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week our subject is the fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. Worry not, Whovians… I will eventually get to David Tennant, so stop asking. READ MORE
April 23rd, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic book shops, on the iPad, in subscribers mailboxes and on news stands everywhere today: MAD # 521 (June 2013) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Rick Tulka, Jeff Kruse, Anton Emdin, Bob Staake, Brian Gordon, Matt Lassen, John Kerschbaum, Tom Bunk, Darren Johnson, David DeGrand, Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Paul Gilligan, Phil McAndrew) Game of Groans (Desmond Devlin, Hermann Mejia) A MAD Look at Baseball (Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Colors: Tom Luth) Planet TAD!!!!! (Tim Carvell) Overheard in Doggie Heaven (Jeff Kruse, Paul Coker) The All-American Fun N’ Gun Show (Frank Santopadre, Scott Bricher) The Darker Side of the Lighter Side of… (Dave Berg) Stuff-E-Vest… READ MORE
April 22nd, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
This week’s Monday MADness isn’t actually from a piece I did in MAD but one from the now-defunct MAD Kids. Some people questioned why a magazine that was supposedly already aimed at kids would do a “Kids” version as well. MAD itself is not aimed at kids…it’s not aimed at any demographic, really. That said, if I was forced to name a demographic I’d say 13-17 years-olds, with plenty of stuff thrown in for both adults and younger kids as well. MAD Kids was squarely for the 8-12 year old set, in the same mould as Nickelodeon magazine used to be. It was a fun… READ MORE
