Tom's Mad Blog
November 22nd, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
If you are a fan of MAD‘s Spy vs. Spy, or know someone who is, put Spy vs. Spy: Omnibus on your Christmas list. 10 years ago, MAD put out Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook, which features all 247 Spy vs. Spy’s Antonio Prohias did for MAD, plus all the other articles he wrote/drew for the magazine as well as essays, interviews, preliminaries and sketches, his early Pre-MAD work and a bunch more fun stuff. It’s a great book, but one aspect of it was disappointing… many of the Spy vs Spy strips were printed much smaller than the originally appeared (about 25%…as in… READ MORE
November 22nd, 2011 | Posted in News
The Biography Channel will be airing Jeff Dunham: The Birth of a Dummy tonight at 8 PM/7 PM Central, during which Jeff is going to talk about the creation of one of his newest characters and (I’m told) my role in that process. Try and catch it! READ MORE
November 21st, 2011 | Posted in General
One of the typical things you will find in any how-to book is a definition of the book’s subject. It is cliche but a good jumping-off point. On page 2 of my book The Mad Art of Caricature, I wanted to play the definition card. The problem was that the best definition I ever heard was one I could not for the life of me remember where I had heard it. That definition was: “A caricature is a portrait with the volume turned up.” I spent a fair amount of time trying to find out where I had heard that quote. At the time I… READ MORE
November 20th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What advice would you give on preparing and showing a portfolio for obtaining freelance work? A: This question isn’t really from anybody specifically, but last week when visiting the Savannah College of Art and Design I did a round-table portfolio review for a group of students, and I thought some of the questions and information disseminated there would make for a good Sunday Mailbag post. First off, let me say that the era of hauling around and showing a physical portfolio to art directors in pursuit of work is all but over. The term “portfolio” used to mean the leather case containing the bound… READ MORE
November 18th, 2011 | Posted in News
Art by John Martz The deadline approaches… STOP PROCRASTINATING! If you are an art student/college student interesting in cartooning, send in your submissions for the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship today! : Jay Kennedy Scholarship The annual Jay Kennedy Scholarship, in memory of the late King Features editor, was funded by an initial $100,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation/King Features Syndicate and additional generous donations from Jerry Scott, Jim Borgman, Patrick McDonnell and many other prominent cartoonists. Submissions are adjudicated by a panel of top cartoonists and an award is given to the best college cartoonist. The recipient is feted at the annual NCS Reuben Awards… READ MORE
November 17th, 2011 | Posted in General
Photo by Jamie Smith I had a chance to meet a number of very talented and hospitable professors, underclassmen and grad students during my visit to the Savannah College of Art and Design last week. One of them got saddled with me as my “handler” (poor schmuck) and really did a great job making sure I had everything I needed for my student portfolio review session and the workshop I did at the SCAD museum. His name was Jamie Smith, and he has written a really terrific recap of the time he spent keeping me out of trouble in Savannah over on his blog… he… READ MORE
November 17th, 2011 | Posted in Freelancing
Clicky to Embiggen This two page spread appears in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated Kids magazine. The idea was to show a bunch of NBA players opening up their own stores and shops in a mall since they have nothing else to do during the lockout! The weird rectangle sof lighter color/values are where the text was to be placed by the SI folks. READ MORE
November 16th, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I have to cheat on the SotW and post a rough sketch of a recent illustration project because I am under the gun being behind in the studio thanks to the Savannah trip last week and my trip to the ISCA convention in Florida tomorrow through most of the weekend. The above needs some modification, including the addition of some objects or interest in the lower right corner as the composition is imbalanced right now… probably will lose the bear from the gift bag, and instead add a large bear with a bow and a heart-shaped box of candy on the floor next to the… READ MORE
