Tom's Mad Blog
September 15th, 2011 | Posted in General
I’m in the lovely town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, right now taking part in the first annual Kenosha Festival of Cartooning. As you can see from the poster above, there is a pretty terrific line-up of cartoonists speaking and participating in panel discussions over the three-day festival. Things actually kicked off yesterday, but I did not participate in any of the public presentations. I spoke to an illustration class at Carthage College. Some of the students didn’t even fall asleep . . . or maybe they just didn’t snore. Anyway it was fun and we did a little drawing at the end. Today I will be… READ MORE
September 14th, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week is another of the sketches I did for my “Secret Agent Man” limited edition print (which are still available! :D), this one of Timothy Dalton. I thought I was being very clever when I did the art for that print. I wanted to make sure I did something that would be appreciated by even hardcore Bond fans. I wanted the poses, attitudes, accessories, etc. to be spot on. I underestimated how hardcore those fans can be, however. I was taken to task over several blunders, like the ruffles on George Lazenby’s shirt being horizontal, not vertical. The worst offense was that I put… READ MORE
September 13th, 2011 | Posted in General
About two weeks ago I posted these images briefly because the Cartoon Network’s website listed the “Konan the Kardashian” segment I worked on as airing on Aug. 29th. It turned out that was wrong and it did not air in that episode, but did air last night. So, here again are a few images from that segment (plus one new one): Fun episode to work on… but I always say that, don’t I? READ MORE
September 12th, 2011 | Posted in News
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRfNBI4PVa4[/youtube] Late last week I received three advance copies of my book, The Mad Art of Caricature! from the printer via Fed Ex. These are not proofs but actual, bound press copies from the full print run, and are exactly the same as the rest of the books. The printer sends these out in advance of the shipment of the rest of the books, so the publisher can get a look at the final product. The above is a short video of me paging through one of these copies. I am quite pleased with the printing, especially given the trouble we had with the first… READ MORE
September 11th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When did you publish your first artwork? And where? When did you publish your first artwork in Mad magazine? A: My first really published work, not including stuff for local restaurants or ads for realtors or similar, was for the comic book Married… with Children, for NOW Comics (as to how it all came about, you can read about my NOW Comics story here). I did the pencils for Vol. 1, issue #7: This comic book job was a disaster. Originally the story was supposed to be about Al Bundy getting mixed up in some kind of caper with an “Elvira” type character. But… READ MORE
September 10th, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Over at The Idiotical, the Official Blog of MAD Magazine (this is a very UNofficial blog), they have posted the story behind the cover of MAD #411, otherwise known as the 9-11 cover. The tell the tale of how this: replaced this: at the very last minute, following the events of September 11th, 2001. MAD very correctly decided that, despite the innocent marathon scene, having a cover depicting a crowd of people running through the streets of New York with Alfred jumping a dead body would probably be taken in a different way after September 11th. I won’t recount the entire tale here, you can… READ MORE
September 9th, 2011 | Posted in News
Click for a closer look… This week’s sneak peek is the opening splash of Chapter Six: Beyond the Face. In this chapter, I discuss how other aspects of a person’s figure, physicality, and “presence”, contribute to their caricature. I go over drawing and caricaturing the shoulders and neck in detail, talk about posture, have an expanded “drawing hands” section, and examine the differences in how you treat men and women in caricature, complete with drawing tips and examples. This chapter is 20 pages long and contains over 60 illustrations. Book delivery update: The book printing is complete and finished copies are now in the shipping… READ MORE
September 8th, 2011 | Posted in Freelancing
Here’s a set of spots I did recently for Penthouse Magazine, illustrating a story about things people are reluctant or hate to do, or are no good at: Giving a wedding toast Telling your girlfriend or boyfriend they have bad breath… Taking a drunk friend’s keys Visiting a terminally ill friend… The story also gives advice on how to do some of these harder things. In most cases I illustrated how NOT to do it. READ MORE
