Tom's Mad Blog
March 11th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Have you or any caricature artists you know been sued by a celebrity for using their image in a caricature? A: The area of law you are referring to is called the “right of publicity”, and I have written a number of blog posts about this subject over the years. The short answer to your question is no, I have never been sued nor to my knowledge has any specific caricature artist been sued for a caricature of a celebrity. The closest I ever got was when Arnold Schwarzenegger walked by my caricature booth at the Mall of America years ago and saw his… READ MORE
March 9th, 2012 | Posted in General
I got this tweet the other day from cartoonist and teacher Chris Pearce: Chris had run across an old issue of Coneheads at a thrift store, and wrote a blog post about it in a feature called “Thrift Store Finds”, where he says a lot of nice things about my work in it, most of which are not deserved. My tweeted response is correct…that was an interesting job . . . my first (and only) project with Marvel Comics. It was a four issue miniseries from 1994, obviously based on the Saturday Night Live skit and the (then) recently released movie of the same. The… READ MORE
March 8th, 2012 | Posted in Freelancing
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRuzVKSX-1Q[/youtube] Here’s another animated commercial for director Ray Griggs and Swiss America I did some design work on. The Bernanke, Reagan and Obama characters I had designed for previous videos, and I did a series of “ghost” versions of some other famous (and dead) politicians that appear very briefly in the last few seconds. These were not character designs that were going to be 3D animated but single illustrations meant to approximate the look of the 3D animations for the quick look onscreen. I don’t think we quite pulled that off . . . too much contrast and too much of a linear, cartoon look… READ MORE
March 7th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A warm up sketch of recent Oscar winner Christopher Plummer. READ MORE
March 6th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
DC Entertainment launched a completely redesigned web presence today, with all new looks for the DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD websites: New Online Destinations for DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD Offer Multimedia Experiences with Exclusive Content, Integrated Community Features and Character Franchise Pages BURBANK, CA, March 6, 2012 – DC Entertainment, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company and home to iconic brands DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD, launched today a portfolio of comprehensive and interactive new websites. The DCComics.com site, currently in beta status, offers fans exclusive new content, integrated community and social media features, and in-depth character franchise pages built around iconic characters including Superman,… READ MORE
March 6th, 2012 | Posted in News
Hard to believe, but my book The Mad Art of Caricature!- A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces already needs to do a second printing. This is not going to be a second edition . . . there won’t be any new material added. It is merely a second run of the original book. That said, I do have an opportunity here to correct a few of the stray typos and errors that snuck past my copy editors and myself the first time around. Believe me, the fact that these errors are so few and far between is a testament to the hard work and… READ MORE
March 5th, 2012 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
A few things going and upcoming right now: MAD Parody– Movie for issue #515. Deadline rushing headlong at me and it’s angry. Graphic Novel Cover– Not sure how to classify this, but it’s a fun job that the publisher wants me to do just the inked art for, and a colorist will be painting. This will be the first time since my comic book days another artist has colored my work. Should be interesting. Company Logo Design– I usually refuse to do logo work because I hate working with type, and it’s not really my forte anyway, but this one was a rare instance that… READ MORE
March 4th, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What was your very first paid professional freelance job? A: That depends on your definition of “professional freelance job”. If by that you mean the first time money was ever given to me in exchange for my artwork, that would have been in 10th grade in La Crescent, MN, when a fellow classmate named Lori paid me to paint my concept of a Van Halen album cover… not a copy of one of their album covers, but my idea of a new cover. I did their classic VH logo looking like it was rising out of a glowing, smoking crater. I did it using… READ MORE
