Tom's Mad Blog
June 26th, 2012 | Posted in General
I only met the late Mark Cohen once. This was in 1999 at the NCS Reuben Weekend in San Antonio, and before I started doing work for MAD. Mark was a prominent collector of cartoon artwork, and had 9among other things) one of the largest collections of original MAD art on the planet. His collections toured around galleries, and he was a tireless advocate for the cartooning world. I wish I had gotten a chance to get to know him. One of Mark’s more well-known collections was of self-caricatures of cartoonists, of which he was said to have had close to 1,000. In 1998 he… READ MORE
June 25th, 2012 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Can’t seem to get ahead . . . a great problem for a freelancer to have but I am going to be doing a lot of traveling this summer and the drawing board just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Here’s what’s on the board currently: Marlin Co. Workplace poster- Doing finals today. They allow me to post the results right away so perhaps tomorrow on that. Jeff Dunham art- More finished illustration for some future products, also finishing today Utne Reader cover– just got this assignment, pencils due tomorrow, final next week. MAD Parody– The Avengers for MAD #517! Usually I have to keep what… READ MORE
June 24th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you have an assistant or is there any part of a drawing that you farm out?¬¨‚Ć If so, What part and Why? A: I just had a conversation about this very topic with my long-time friend, comic book artist super-star Doug Mahnke, who came down to the house with his wife Michelle for my daughter’s graduation party. I was telling him how utterly and completely swamped I was with all these freelance assignments, and he asked me if I’d ever considered hiring an assistant to whom I could assign some of the more tedious “busy work” like backgrounds or clean up or such… READ MORE
June 22nd, 2012 | Posted in General
If you are a fan of MAD magazine, either past or present, you would behoove yourself to make a regular habit of visiting Doug Gilford‘s MAD cover site. Doug is a great supporter and fan of MAD, and has dedicated a lot of time an effort in cataloging and tracking all things MAD. Not only does he have scans of every MAD cover ever, he has complete lists of the tables of contents of every issue, an exhaustive compiling of every appearance by a MAD contributor (here’s mine), a list of every TV and movie satire that’s ever appeared in the magazine, updated MAD news… READ MORE
June 21st, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A day late, but here is this week’s SotW, another of the stars of THC’s “Pawn Stars”, Austin “Chumlee” Russell. READ MORE
June 19th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
¬¨‚Ć Standing from left to right Nick Meglin, me, model Lynn Vacek, Don “Duck” Edwing, model Mona Burns. Seated from left to right: Jack Davis, Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Al Jaffee, and Sam Viviano. ©2012 Sampsel Preston Photography- Clicky to Embiggen This was one of my favorite moments from last month’s NCS Reuben Weekend. Photographer and author of The Artist Within Greg Preston set up this awesome photoshoot of the attending MAD artists and writers (plus a couple of gorgeous models) in a 60’s MAD MEN setting. Of course, this is what it always looks like when the Usual Gang of Idiots gets together. I still pinch… READ MORE
June 18th, 2012 | Posted in General
Things might be ugly here for the next week or so. Talk amongst yourselves. READ MORE
June 17th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
I get a number of frequently asked questions in the Mailbag (you know, like “what kind of pen do you use?”. :Where do you get your ideas?”¬¨‚Ć and “Can you draw my caricature?”), and every once and a while I post an updated answer based on a previous post.¬¨‚Ć This is one of those “once in a while”s. From the Mailbag Archives. Q: I want to learn to draw caricatures. What should I do? A: Seek professional psychiatric help. If you are still intent on drawing caricatures, the best way to become a good caricaturist is to have been dropped on your head a lot… READ MORE
