Tom's Mad Blog
January 3rd, 2013 | Posted in News
From the NCS Website: The National Cartoonists Society is starting it’s annual call for entries for consideration for their NCS Divisional Awards recognizing excellence in professional cartooning. As always, you DO NOT have to be a member of the NCS to have your work considered for a divisional award… all that is required is that the work be eligible as detailed below. NEW THIS YEAR: – There are now two divisions for Online Comics, Short Form and Long Form. See below for details. – The Advertising Illustration division has been expanded to Advertising and Product Illustration, which will include not only cartooning for advertising but… READ MORE
January 2nd, 2013 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I wasn’t planning on posting any more of these caricatures done for the Limited Artist’s Edition of my book, but then I received several emails from people who said they really liked seeing the caricature AND the references I worked from. They thought it was a useful learning tool. So, I will occasionally throw one of these up as a SotW. This one is of Yougeshwar “BJ” Ramkissoon Jr., aged 13, and a budding caricaturist/cartoonist. Incidentally, I am officially at the halfway point of my 120 limited copies of this offer. If you have an interest in this one-of-a-kind, never to be repeated offer,… READ MORE
January 1st, 2013 | Posted in General
Don’t be a sourpuss like this guy. Here’s wishing everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year! READ MORE
December 31st, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Before you worked for MAD, was it your goal to work for MAD? And at this point, did you really believe you would work for MAD? How did you get your first gig with them? A: Working for MAD was a relatively late goal of mine, although once I became focused on it I went all out. Here’s the short version of the story: Like many American boys I had a time when I was really “into” MAD Magazine. This was between 5th and 7th grades, so I would have been 10-12 years old. My friend had a subscription, so when his copy arrived… READ MORE
December 30th, 2012 | Posted in General
We interrupt the Sunday Mailbag today (look for a Monday Mailbag tomorrow) to tell everyone to grab their Sunday paper . . . you still get a Sunday newspaper, right? . . . and check out today’s Beetle Bailey comic strip! I make a guest appearance! I got a call late this summer from the Walker Studio’s Bill Janocha asking me if it would be okay if Mort Walker and the gang do a gag featuring me in a Sunday strip. It was a nod to my winning the Reuben this year. Mort is of course one of the earliest members of the National Cartoonists… READ MORE
December 28th, 2012 | Posted in General
As the New Year dawns, we invariably look back at the last 12 months and take stock in the ups and downs of the year. I have a great deal to be thankful for . . . it will be tough to ever top 2012 for me. Here are some of my highlights, with links to blog posts (if any): NCS Announces On-Line Comics Divisional Award– There were some growing pains, but I was proud to have gotten this done with the support of my NCS board. (Look for some news about the expansion of this division next week!) Me on Tall Tale Radio! Always… READ MORE
December 27th, 2012 | Posted in News
From the NCS Website: Brad Anderson, the creator of the comic strip Marmaduke, will be honored with the National Cartoonists Society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 NCS Reuben Award Weekend, held this year in Pittsburgh, PA on May 24th-26th. Brad’s amazing career spans 60 years and includes cartoons for many magazines and publications in addition to Marmaduke, which is syndicated by Universal Uclick. In 2010 Marmaduke became a major motion picture from 20th Century Fox, featuring a computer animated Marmaduke alongside live actors. About Brad Anderson (an excerpt from an America Profile article from 2010): Putting pen to paper, cartoonist Brad… READ MORE
December 26th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
As frequent readers of this blog probably know by now, I am a bit of a Sherlockian…which is to say I am a devoted fan of, and somewhat of an amateur expert on, the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories featuring the Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes. I’m not talking about the vast multitudes of ancillary stories, books, films and pastiches that have been done with the character . . . I know next to nothing about that stuff. I’m talking about the original 56 short stories and four novels by Conan Doyle, from which all the rest of it sprung. A purist, in other words. Oh,… READ MORE
