Richmond Illustration Inc.

Tom's Mad Blog

Sketch o’the Week

February 29th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

This week’s sketch subject is Dexter star Jennifer Carpenter. She has a very long face, a crooked mouth and small, angular eyes very far apart. READ MORE

Artist Spotlight on The Idiotical

February 28th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine

Looks like the guys at MAD are already running out of good material for their Official Blog, The Idiotical… they are resorting to featuring me as their “Artist Spotlight”! Actually the MAD gang are really pulling out the stops for The Idiotical. This is no afterthought. They constantly update with daily (and often multiple times per day) content that is a combination of original stuff, classic MAD bits, peeks at current content from the magazine and other fun garbage. They have recurring original features as well, like this “artist spotlight” thing. I wonder if my being featured this week has anything to do with that… READ MORE

Team Cul de Sac Dust Jacket Art Released

February 27th, 2012 | Posted in News

Clicky to Embiggen Last week Chris Sparks posted a look at the dust jacket artwork for the upcoming Team Cul De Sac book. The artwork is done (of course) by the incomparable Richard Thompson. I’ve posted about the book before…it features artwork by 150 well-known cartoonists with their take on Petey, Alice and the Cul De Sac world. The full list of contributors can be found here, and it’s damned impressive. I am so happy to have been a small part of this project, which will raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for research for Parkinson’s disease. Chris was even kind enough to… READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

February 26th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag

Q: How do I break into MAD? A: If you want to break into MAD, the easiest way is with a grappling hook, 50 feet of rope, a glass cutter and suction cups. You can bribe your way in on Wednesdays with home baked cookies offered to Dick DeBartolo. Seriously, getting into MAD is notoriously hard to do, but it isn’t quite the impenetrable fortress it was in the 70’s and 80’s. Back then MAD had their legendary freelancers in their prime, and there was frankly very little work they had in the magazine that one of their established and well known “Usual Gang of… READ MORE

Reubens Art: Behind the Scenes

February 24th, 2012 | Posted in General

Fellow caricaturist Rick Wright asked in the comments on yesterday’s blog post about my 2012 Reuben artwork if I used a 3D program to do the Las Vegas sign in the background, and I got a couple of emails asking how I handled that (one accused me of photomontaging it!). So, I thought I’d post the pencil roughs and inks for a little behind the scenes look: Clicky to embiggen Above is the the rough concept sketch. Typically I only take a rough stab at the caricature at this point because I am just working out the composition and general concept. However I did do… READ MORE

2012 Reuben Awards Weekend Art

February 23rd, 2012 | Posted in News

Clicky to Embiggen The official brochures and registration info for the National Cartoonists Society’s 2012 Reuben Awards should be landing in member’s mailboxes starting today, so I thought I’d post the artwork I did for this year’s brochure. This image depicts the 2012 guest speakers, special award winners and our nutty emcee. Here’s the list of unlucky models: Top: Tom Gammill (The Doozies, TV writer and producer, Reubens emcee). Second row from left: Steve McGarry (Badlands, Trivquiz, Biographic, Kid City, NCS Silver T-Square recipient), Mark Simon (animator, storyboard artist, entrepreneur), Alfred E. Neuman (idiot), John Lotshaw (Accidental Centaurs), Dave Kellett (Sheldon, Drive), Michael Jantze (The… READ MORE

Sketch o’the Week

February 22nd, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

Bit of a cheat this week for the SotW as this is a portion of a job I’m working on. Park of the rough sketch, thus the very loose drawing. I’ll post the final art when it’s appropriate. I would hope it’s obvious this is a caricature of Albert Einstein. READ MORE

Six Guest Cartoonists Take Up Temporary Residence on Cul de Sac

February 21st, 2012 | Posted in News

Image courtesy and ©2011 Richard Thompson/Universal Uclick 2010 National Cartoonist Society “Cartoonist of the Year” Richard Thompson is taking a hiatus from his Universal Uclick syndicated comic strip Cul de Sac, and inviting six guest cartoonists to take over the reins of the popular daily during his absence. Richard is taking time off to receive treatment for Parkinson’s Disease. The six guest cartoonists will be Ken Fisher (Tom the Dancing Bug), Michael Jantze (The Norm), Corey Pandolph (Elderberries), Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Lincoln Pierce (Big Nate) and Mo Willems (award winning children’s book author/illustrator). Their guest stints began yesterday (Monday, Feb 20th) with Michael… READ MORE