Tom's Mad Blog
August 3rd, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
And now for something a little different. Several years ago The Lovey Anna and I went to Paris for our anniversary. While we were there we visited the Lourve, and I brought my sketchbook along. I did an obligatory study from a Da Vinci painting, but really got fascinated by Jacques-Louis David‘s Le Sacre de Napol?¬©on (the Coronation of Napoleon). This is a gigantic painting, 20′ a 32′, showing the coronation of Napoleon, and every single figure in it is unique and practically breathing with life and personality. Several of them were real people, including a few that weren’t actually at the ceremony, but even… READ MORE
August 2nd, 2011 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Last month was one of the craziest months I have ever had in the studio. Besides the theme park operations in full summer swing, I did a six page parody for MAD, a two pager for Sports Illustrated Kids, several spot illustrations for Penthouse, a bunch of work for the ongoing project for comedian Jeff Dunham, art for two episodes of the MAD animated show for WB Animation/Cartoon Network and two poster illustrations for The Marlin Company, plus most of the art for the book… oh, yeah… and Comic-Con. Whew. Right now I have nothing on the drawing board except the few illustrations I need… READ MORE
August 1st, 2011 | Posted in News
This fall I will be speaking at the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning being held on September 14th-16th in… you guessed it… Kenosha, Wisconsin. The festival is being organized by Anne Hambrock, wife and right-hand-woman to creator of the syndicated comic strip The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee John Hambrock, who will be one of the participating cartoonists. Besides John and myself, the festival will feature Between Friends creator Sandra Bell Lundy,¬¨‚Ćcreator of Pooch Cafe Paul Gilligan,¬¨‚Ćeditorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune Scott Stantis, creator of The Norm and head of Jantze Animation Studios Michael Jantze, and John Read, the publisher of “Stay Tooned” magazine and… READ MORE
July 31st, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I know you have already covered the basics of exaggerating but I’d really love to pick your brain a bit more about seeing your subject; what to exaggerate and emphasise and what to play down. For example drawing familiar faces, friends or relatives or even celebrities you’ve ‘known’ for years. Or drawing characters like Lemmy Kilmister, who looks like a caricature already. It seems really hard to analyze someone’s face that far without over-analyzing and losing the big picture. A: Well, that’s the trick to caricature. It’s exactly those decisions, what to exaggerate and what not to, that dictate the success of a caricature… READ MORE
July 29th, 2011 | Posted in General
Carlos Santana may be getting old, but guitars do not age and he still rocks! Back in May The Lovely Anna and I had occasion to visit Las Vegas scouting locations for the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Weekend, and while there we saw the 80’s rock band Foreigner perform at the Green Valley Ranch Resort.¬¨‚Ć Last night, Anna and some girlfriends was Foreigner again with Journey and Night Ranger here in St. Paul… 80’s rock flashback. When I Facebooked about seeing Foreigner, I got a few comments about how it’s not the “real” Foreigner since original lead singer Lou Gramm was not touring with the… READ MORE
July 28th, 2011 | Posted in News
Some info on the revival performaces of The MAD Show! musical from MAD’s official blog, The Idiotical: This weekend, the York Theatre Company is producing The MAD Show, which was originally produced Off-Broadway in 1966. It has a book by legendary MAD writers Larry Siegel and Stan Hart; lyrics by Marshall Barer and Steven Vinaver; and music by Mary Rodgers (including a song by Stephen Sondheim). The original production featured actors Linda Lavin and Jo Ann Worley. The revival cast will include popular actors and actresses from Broadway and Off-Broadway. Check out this post on The Idiotical for more info, and for background on the… READ MORE
July 27th, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I’m still extremely busy trying to get caught up after being away for the San Diego Comic-Con, so here is one of the studies I did for the limited edition print I sold at Comic-Con (and am still selling). This is Roger Moore, the James Bond I remember from my youth. I thought he was THE James Bond, until I saw Sean Connery‘s earlier films after a recommendation from one of my middle-school teachers. Connery’s still the best, but I do like Daniel Craig in the role. READ MORE
July 26th, 2011 | Posted in News
Several people expressed an interest in getting a copy of my signed and numbered, limited edition print, “Secret Agent Man” if I had any left after Comic-Con… well, I have plenty left. They were popular and stopped a lot of people in their tracks as they walked by, but I had a LOT of them. There were 250 total, 11″ x 17″, all signed and numbered… more than half of them are still available. READ MORE
