Tom's Mad Blog
March 6th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: This is a follow up question to last Sunday’s mailbag (about computer crashes). I fix Macs, and something I hear all the time from photographers is that the glass panel on the iMacs makes it tougher to accurately edit photos. ¬¨‚ĆDo you have that problem as an illustrator?¬¨‚ĆAm surprised to see you’ve gone with an iMac, so I’m wondering if the glare doesn’t bother you, or if you work in a dark room. 🙂 A: I don’t have that problem for two reasons. First, my studio lighting is of the halogen track lighting variety and the fixtures themselves are almost directly above my head.… READ MORE
March 5th, 2011 | Posted in News
Michael Cavna posts about the upcoming Reuben Awards on his excellent blog Comic Riffs, including statements from Cartoonist of the Year nominees Stephen Pastis, Richard Thompson and Glen Keane and some blathering by me about the NCS art I posted yesterday. READ MORE
March 4th, 2011 | Posted in News
Click for a closer look… Having just received my official 2011 NCS Reuben’s Weekend brochure in the mail yesterday, I would say it’s okay to share the artwork I did for it and this year’s Reuben’s T-Shirt. NCS president Jeff Keane had me do an illustration this year that worked on both the t-shirt and the brochure, which means a lot of cartoon characters. Therefore we didn’t include any of the guest speakers this time around, but limited the “real people” to master of ceremonies Tom Gammill, NCS Gold Key Award (the NCS Hall of Fame) winner Roy Doty, the 2011 Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement… READ MORE
March 3rd, 2011 | Posted in News
The sixth issue of John Read‘s excellent cartoon industry magazine Stay Tooned! is officially released today. I got my copy a day or two ago, and John continues to produce a top notch publication. Here’s the lowdown on this “Mike” issue: Issue 6 (available beginning March 3rd and until it inevitably sells out) features a multitude of Mikes: new profiles (that’s interviews and art galleries) of Mike Arnold, Mike Cope, Mike Edholm, Michael Jantze, Mike Lynch, Michael Maslin and Michael Ramirez; Cartoonist Surveys conducted by David Paccia with Mike Marland and Mike Shapiro; a “True-Life Adventure” told by Mike Mignola.¬¨‚Ć Photo reports share John Read’s… READ MORE
March 2nd, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
As I am still swamped with catch up work following my vacation, this week’s “Sketch o’ the Week” is another cop out from an actual job. These drawings are part of a concept study for a statue that may or may not be produced as a promotional item for the film “I Want Your Money”, for which I did a bunch of animated character design and storyboard work. READ MORE
March 1st, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Here is an interesting time line of the evolution of MAD Magazine’s logo: The illustrations within the logo appeared intermittently after the solid color one debuted in MAD #87, and pre-1955 several issues of MAD had a logo that matched the cover concept, like a parody of LIFE magazine in MAD #11, a newspaper headline in MAD #16 and a few other examples. This is from the MAD Mumblings forum I mentioned yesterday, courtesy of contributor Mark AKA “THEMADBUG!” from Australia. The thread it’s from is a petition to get MAD to revert to the classic logo that was used for over 30 years from… READ MORE
February 28th, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
©2010 MAD Magazine and E.C. Publications, used with permission … no, sadly this is not the title of a new book from MAD. That would be one beat-up book by the time readers got done doing the fold-ins… all 426 of them. How do I know Al has done 426 fold-ins for MAD? Thanks to Doug Gilford, the author of The MAD Cover Site, that’s how. Some weeks ago I posted an announcement from MAD calling for birthday wishes to be sent in for Al, who turns 90 on March 13th. The well wishes had to be actual cards, letter, etc. and not your garden-variety… READ MORE
February 27th, 2011 | Posted in General
Only use this when the need is overwhelming. Do not abuse. READ MORE
