Tom's Mad Blog
May 12th, 2013 | Posted in General
Q: I am a what you would consider an “average-amateur-novice-white-belt” artist. I have spent many hours in non-art classes throughout college, grad school, and (heaven forbid) church doodling in my notebooks and on the back of Sunday programs, always impressing my less artistic siblings or classmates. I have always enjoyed drawing and now that schooling is done and I have more free time, I have decided to dedicate more time to drawing and art. In my search for instruction, I stumbled upon your book. I really enjoyed it, partially because other books about caricature seemed rather lackluster, but mostly because your caricatures are exactly the… READ MORE
May 10th, 2013 | Posted in General
We might be seeing this guy’s ugly mug a bit the next few weeks. My last theme park operation opens tomorrow, I’ve got two major MAD jobs in the works, one due yesterday, four other illustration jobs on the board with two due imminently, and I’ve got this little weekend event called the NCS Reuben Award Weekend I’m in charge of planning and pulling off less than two weeks away. I’m really starting to hate May. READ MORE
May 9th, 2013 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Some months ago MAD quietly redid their website and got rid of the separate official blog formerly known as “The Idiotical”. Actually DC rebranded all their websites, and MAD was along for the ride. They merged the blog with the rest of the site so it became one central place to go and get daily updates, news, gags (and gagging), shopping etc. Now when you visit, there is a two column staggered list of teasers ala a Facebook wall, with the latest MAD tomfoolery. They still post original content, often of the parody movie poster or TV ad variety, plus sneak peeks of stuff from… READ MORE
May 8th, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Better late than never today… a quick sketch of the seventh Doctor as played by Sylvester McCoy. READ MORE
May 7th, 2013 | Posted in General
I am a pretty tough person to buy gifts for. I basically have everything I could ever want (within reason… freelance illustrators as a general rule can’t afford Porsches or winter homes in Hawaii). I have a complete batsuit, for God’s sake. The Lovely Anna and my kids and family hate my birthday and the holidays because they just don’t have a clue what to get me. That means they have to ask me, so I am seldom surprised by anything. Anna is pretty creative, though. This year for my birthday (which was this past Saturday… 47, thanks for asking) she surprised me with some… READ MORE
May 6th, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
This week’s Monday MADness is a peek behind the scenes of a piece I did for MAD #467 (July 2006) called “Rejected Characters from Cars” written by Jacob Lambert. The premise was a collection of characters from the Pixar film Cars (Cars 2 was about to come out, I think) that were deemed “not marketable enough” to be included in the movie. The scene was a used car lot and I was supposed to mimic the Pixar look for the cars. As I was hand painting them (okay, digitally hand painting, but still using a brush tool) I could only get so close to that… READ MORE
May 5th, 2013 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve seen your work used on websites without any credit to you and figure it is probably without your permission. Isn’t that copyright infringement? How do you handle that sort of thing? A: The Interwebs are a both a boon and a bane to visual artists when it comes to people stealing your artwork and using it without your permission. It’s a bane because if you put your artwork on the internet, it will get stolen… I guarantee it. It’s a boon because there are billions of people on it and some of them will be your eyes and ears (well, eyes anyway) and… READ MORE
May 3rd, 2013 | Posted in News
Encouraging kids of any age to discover and read comics has no downside, and to that end there is a wonderful annual event called Free Comic Book Day that happens in comic book specialty shops across North America and worldwide. Held the first Saturday in May each year, the premise is simple: any customer can walk into a comic shop and receive a free comic book! Now in its 12th year, Free Comic Book Day happens tomorrw, May 4th, at your local participating Comic Book shop!¬¨‚Ć To find shops near you, visit www.comicshoplocator.com. Go visit your local comic book store tomorrow, get a free comic… READ MORE
