Tom's Mad Blog
December 18th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you do personal commissions? I’d really like to get a caricature done of my wife for a Christmas present. If you do, what does it entail and how much does it cost? A: Many years ago I stopped doing personal commissions for a number of reasons. First, I didn’t have the time. I am usually swamped with publication work and it’s hard to squeeze in personal commission jobs around the edges. If I were to take them on, it would be at the expense of publication jobs. The second reason is that I’d have to charge an outrageous fee to do personal commissions.… READ MORE
December 17th, 2011 | Posted in General
Over on MAD‘s official blog, The Idiotical, the editors have announced that you can now purchase select MAD books for download on the Kindle Fire. Can the magazine itself be far behind? READ MORE
December 16th, 2011 | Posted in General
One thing I have always had to fight against with respect to my professional work is my tendency to visualize a single solution to an illustration project and just run with it. While that is the least time-consuming way to go about things, it is also just plain lazy. It is always advisable to force yourself to come up with a few other ideas, if for no other reason than to explore the concept and exercise your conceptual skills. The magic number I always adhere to is three… I want to come up with three different ideas for an illustration that communicate the message and… READ MORE
December 16th, 2011 | Posted in General
My apologies to all for the extended hiatus. It’s a long story involving FTP permissions, security and other client son the same servers I was on… it would be extremely boring to go into it. Suffice it to say it’s all ironed out and the MAD Blog is back in action. By way of an apology, here is a fantastic link to the fantastic blog of fantastic illustrator Drew Friedman, where he fantastically recaps his fantastic interview with the fantastic Jack Davis. This message has been brought to you by The MAD Blog’s Adjective of the Day: ITCHY Thank you. READ MORE
December 13th, 2011 | Posted in General
I am once again changing servers, this time internally within my web-host’s structure, and for a brief time I am unable to upload images or do several things with the blog during the transition. As a result, The MAD Blog will be on hiatus for a brief time… might be just today, might be for a few days. Unknown. My apologies, we will be back up ASAP. In the meantime…carry on, internet. READ MORE
December 12th, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
On news stands next week and in comic book shops today: MAD # 513 (February 2012) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Bob Staake, Glen LeLievre, Teresa Burns Parkhurst, Kevin Pope, Jeff Kruse, Scott Bricher, P.C. Vey, Tom Bunk, Kit Lively, Tim Hamilton, Jacob Lambert, Charles Akins, Jason Salas, John Caldwell, ) The MAD 20- The Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2010 The Walking Debt (Artist: Hermann Mejia) Tired Air Traffic Controllers: Stay the F**k Awake (Darren Johnson, James Warhola) The Blind Eye (Artist: Scott Bricher) The Anthony Weiner “No Limits” Sexting Plan (Writer: Desmond Devlin) Wedding Cashers (Matt Lassen, Mark Stutzman) The Sheen… READ MORE
December 11th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Knowing that you’re a huge Batman fan, which version of Batman (TV or movie) do you feel came closest to living up to the character and who would be your favorite villain? Also, I know you’ve had some of your work animated, but did animation itself ever appeal to you as a career? A: Please forgive the self-indulgence of answering a more personal opinion question here. Let’s take the second one first, as it’s the more pertinent professional query. I never considered animation as a career because I don’t have the patience for it. I might have been able to do character design given… READ MORE
December 9th, 2011 | Posted in News
When I joined the National Cartoonists Society in 1999, I got the chance to meet many of my cartooning heroes at the Reuben Awards weekends held in May each year. It was thrilling to get to meet legends like Jack Davis, Charles Schulz, Mort Drucker, Jeff MacNelly, Mike Peters… the list goes on and on. I’m not easily starstruck, but a few of those artists I was genuinely tongue-tied when I met them. Jerry Robinson might be the one I was most awed to meet, and that is saying something. Anybody who knows me knows I am a huge Batman fan… as I type this… READ MORE
