Tom's Mad Blog
November 15th, 2011 | Posted in General
Team Cul de Sac is the brainchild of Chris Sparks, who has worked tirelessly to organize this fundraising program for Parkinson’s research. It’s a part of TeamFox, the Michael J Fox Foundation’s fundraising arm, which in the last year alone raised almost 4 million dollars for research. The fundraiser revolves around the brilliant comic strip Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson, an incredibly talented cartoonist who happens to have Parkinson’s. Team Cul de Sac invitied professional cartoonists, illustrators, artists and animators to donate original art made especially for a book, published by Andrews & McMeel, about Parkinson’s awareness. Part of the profits from the sales… READ MORE
November 14th, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
From left: Nick Meglin, myself, Paul Coker, Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Al Jaffee, Jack Davis and Sam Viviano. Clicky to Embiggen. This past weekend I had the distinct privilege to participate in a gathering of some of the “Usual Gang of Idiots” (i.e. major contributors to MAD Magazine) hosted by the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society and the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah Georgia. In attendance were long-time editor Nick Meglin, cartooning legends and members of the exclusive 50 year MAD contributor club, Paul Coker Jr., Jack Davis and Al Jaffee, soon to be member of that same club (next year) Sergio… READ MORE
November 13th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You must have accumulated a ton of digital artwork since you’ve been working as a professional illustrator. How do you go about saving, backing up and archiving your files so that you never lose them? A: That’s one of the things that sucks about digital artwork…you are one electrical surge away from losing it all unless you are careful to back things up. I tried several methods to make sure I properly backed up all my work. First, I would pick up my computer, open the drive bay door and attempt to shake out all the 0’s and 1’s that made up the binary… READ MORE
November 11th, 2011 | Posted in News
I’m currently in Savannah, GA attending an event put together by the Southeast Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society and the Savannah College of Art and Design, featuring a gaggle of Idiots. No, not the cast of Jersey Shore. It’s a gathering of some of the “Usual Gang of Idiots”, as the contributors of MAD Magazine call themselves. As you can see from the list above, it includes some of the true greats from the magazines history, and also me. Some of the conference involves private seminars and workshops with SCAD students. I’ll be doing a workshop on caricature and participating in portfolio reviews, etc.… READ MORE
November 10th, 2011 | Posted in General
Regarding Bil Keane‘s passing… they say you measure your life by how many other people’s lives you influence. If so, Bil led as influential a life as one can. Yesterday I was called and interviewed by both the New York Times and NPR about Bil (in my capacity as current president of the National Cartoonists Society), and have heard and read about his passing in at least two dozen places in the last 24 hours. He was certainly one of the most beloved cartoonists both by the public and within the industry, ever. The image above is an original Family Circus Sunday that was given… READ MORE
November 9th, 2011 | Posted in News
The cartooning world lost a true giant yesterday. Bil Keane, creator of The Family Circus, has passed away at age 89. I’ll never forget the first time I met Bil… In 1999, Anna and I attended our very first Reuben awards in San Antonio. I was a new member and basically knew no one, so we walked about wide-eyed seeing all the legendary cartoonists milling about like Charles Schulz, Jack Davis, Jeff MacNelly and many more. One of those legends I knew and admired the most was Bil Keane. “The Family Circus” was a staple in our home growing up, and while my cartooning tastes… READ MORE
November 9th, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is done in honor of Number One Son Thomas, 15, who thinks Zooey Deschanel is “the greatest person in the world”… Translation: “She’s hot.” READ MORE
November 8th, 2011 | Posted in General
…so says MAD Magazine via their official blog, The Idiotical. They also posted this some weeks back: MAD isn’t exactly know for their subtlety. By the way, if you haven’t been regularly visiting The Idiotical, you are missing out. The guys at MAD have been serious about updating this thing, and with multiple posts a day it shows. Some posts use previous content from the magazine that has some up-to-the-minute current relevance, some of it is wholly original content, and some are sneak peeks of upcoming features in the magazine. All of it is funny. Sometimes brutal, but funny. Make it a daily stop for… READ MORE
