Tom's Mad Blog

Sketch o’the Week

May 16th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

Clicky to embiggen . . . A year or so ago I attempted to take my pal Stephen Silver‘s online animated character design class. Steve is an awesome artist and a great teacher, but I don’t know what I was thinking when I enrolled because in typical fashion I got swamped with work and had to give up on the class. Anyway I was clearing out some old sketches from the flat files today and ran across these from one of the lessons. We were supposed to do a (more or less) realistic character sketch of this model, then do three different takes on his… READ MORE

Toast of the Clown Dept.

May 15th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine

CBR reports that “Dynamic Forces has announced a partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to create a line of toasters designed to burn iconic images into bread. Much like the popular “Battlestar Galactica” toaster that makes Cylon-ized toast, Dynamic Forces’ line of toasters will brand bread with a special image from various Warner Bros. properties such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Watchmen.”” . . . and also MAD Magazine. Yes, YOU TOO can toast your bread to display the nauseating visage of Alfred E. Neuman (actually I have no idea what MAD image will be burned onto your breakfast,… READ MORE

Feline like ordering an eBook?

May 15th, 2012 | Posted in News

Funny and fantastic cartoonist, former NCS president and friend Rick Stromoski is one of many who have joined the growing number of cartoonists entering the wonderful world of eBooks in recent years. He just released a new one: Bad Cats, a feline-centric collection of some of his terrific cartooning. Rick does the syndicated strip Soup to Nutz thorugh Universal Uclick, and is known for his great greeting card and gag cartoon work, as well as book illustration, advertising . . . you name it. I really enjoy his work…he’s a pro’s pro. If you have any cat-lovers with eBook readers in your life, this book… READ MORE

I’m so busy . . .

May 14th, 2012 | Posted in General

I almost didn’t have time to post this non-post. Ecccch. READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

May 13th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag

  Q: As a caricaturist how do you avoid the reliance and clich?¬© of using props (as in properties) to bolster the recognition of a person? For example, if you are depicting a not so well known sports personality there maybe a tendency to add sports gear or team logos to the image helping to get the message across. Or say a “celebrity” who is surrounded by their associated paraphernalia, just so you know who that caricature is meant to be; which helps bridge the association of recognition but then destroys it with poor observational drawing. Sorry if this question has answered in your new… READ MORE

Breast of Show Dept.

May 12th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine

From The Idiotical…The Offical Blog of MAD Magazine: READ MORE

Only Bruce Wayne Could Afford This

May 11th, 2012 | Posted in News

Bring on the lazy, obligatory “Holy (fill in the blank), Batman!” headlines. A near mint copy of Batman #1 sold recently through Heritage Auctions in a private transaction for $850,000. According to this story on CNN.com, this same copy was purchased by a collector three years ago for a mere $315,000. Not a bad return. It was sold to an “investment group” who I am sure are all avid comic book fans. These types of stories have become commonplace lately, as the price of rare and historically-significant (at least historically in the world of pop culture and comic books) comics have skyrocketed in the last… READ MORE

On the Drawing Board- 5/10/12

May 10th, 2012 | Posted in On the Drawing Board

Clicky to embiggen images . . . The pencil rough Finished inks Just finally wrapped up a 6 pager for MAD yesterday…right at the wire. Lot’s of other stuff still on the board, though . . . no rest for the wicked. The above was my Marlin assignment for April with pencil roughs and inks, here’s what’s currently on the board: NBA Poster project- gotta wrap that up this weekend Warner Bros. product illustration- Might be able to share the one I did back in Feb soon. This is another in the same vein. Due tomorrow. May workplace poster assignment for Marlin More Jeff Dunham… READ MORE

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