Tom's Mad Blog
August 19th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: If, God forbid, you should lose the use of your drawing hand, do you think you could draw as well with your other hand i.e. be able to keep up to the standards expected by your current customers?¬¨‚Ć I guess this is another way of asking “How much of your talent would you say is in your hand as opposed to in your brain? A: That is an excellent question, and one I do not think any artist has not thought about at one time or another.. I’m sure there must be scientific studies on the adaptability of man after the loss of use… READ MORE
August 18th, 2012 | Posted in News
I usually don’t post on Saturdays but this news is too sad not to comment on. Universal Uclick announced Friday That Richard Thompson‘s brilliant comic strip Cul de Sac would be ending next month: On September 9, 2007, the remarkable talent of Richard Thompson hit the newspaper pages in the comic strip Cul de Sac. The buzz began even before the strip debuted; Bill Watterson emerged from his retirement to praise the strip’s writing, artwork and imagination. In May, 2011, Richard received the Cartoonist of the Year award from the National Cartoonists Society, an amazing achievement in so short a time. But the last year… READ MORE
August 17th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
MAD continues it’s “MAD’s Greatest Artists” book series with the incomparable Mort Drucker. This hardcover beauty will be available Oct. 23rd, and can be preordered now on Amazon. I got a chance to see a mock-up bound copy of this book when I visited the MAD offices back in June. Obviously it’s not a “complete” collection of Mort’s MAD work . . . having been in over 400 issues that would need many volumes. This is a selection of Mort’s best work, picked by someone who ought to know- Mort himself. There is also a great pull out color poster. This book celebrates the work… READ MORE
August 16th, 2012 | Posted in General
I don’t do this too often anymore, but last week I dusted off the lead-holder and airbrush and worked a shift at my live caricature operation at Valleyfair! theme park here in Minnesota. In fact, I think this was only the second time all summer I did live caricatures, the last time being a day I worked at my Six Flags New England park for a day way back in April… and a handful I did in black and white at the San Diego Comic-Con. I always have a pile of work needing to be done in the studio, so working these shifts never comes… READ MORE
August 15th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s subject is The Dark Knight Rises star Anne Hathaway. I have to admit I was not very enthusiastic over her casting as Selena Kyle aka Catwoman in the latest Batman movie, but I also questioned director Christopher Nolan‘s choice of Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight at first, and we all know how that turned out. I trusted Nolan, and he didn’t disappoint. Hathaway was great in the role, and to have a overtly hot, vampy actress play the part would have been a mistake. I thought she was just the right amount of tough, complex, smart and sexy for… READ MORE
August 14th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised, a sneak peek of “The ScAvengers” from the latest MAD: Splash page final art- Clicky to embiggen… The splash page inks- Clicky to embiggen… Some assorted panels: READ MORE
August 13th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
On news stands and available for download on the iPad Aug 21st, in comic book shops this week, in many subscriber mailboxes already : MAD # 517 (October 2012) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Desmond Devlin, Tom Bunk, Jeff Kruse, Mike Lynch, Tim Shamey, Barry Liebmann, Anton Emdin, Scott Maiko, Bob Staake, Kenny Keil, Glen Le Lievre, Charles Akins, Matt Lassen, Sam Sisco) The ScAvengers (Dick DeBartolo, Tom Richmond) Men’s Wealth Magazine (Uncredited) Minor Sports Cheaters and their Shocking Confessions (John Caldwell) MAD’s Practical College Prep Courses (Teresa Burns Parkhurst) Planet TAD!!!!! (Tim Carvell, Brian Durniak) If Their Candidate… If Your Candidate… (Stan Sinberg,… READ MORE
August 12th, 2012 | Posted in News
We lost one of the greats of the comic book world this morning. Joe Kubert, a true legend of comic art, passed way today at age 85. I only met Joe briefly once, when he was a guest speaker and recipient of the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Weekend in New Jersey in 2010 (I did the above caricature of him for the NCS T-shirt on that occasion). He was one of the most well-liked and well-respected artists in the business, and I never heard anyone say anything about him except that he deserved those descriptions many times over.… READ MORE
