Tom's Mad Blog
October 8th, 2010 | Posted in General
üü Caricature and portrait painting master Sebastian Krüger is one of the most highly respected artists working in the field today. I’ve had the privilege of meeting him a few times at a couple of conventions for the International Society of Caricature Artists (formerly the National Caricaturist Network), and commissioned him to do the caricature of me above. Krüger rarely does caricatures anymore… these days he does mostly fine art paintings of pop culture celebrities for galleries. That’s a real shame as his caricature illustrations were mind-numbingly outstanding, but I don’t think he ever really felt like he was a caricaturist. He is obviously doing… READ MORE
October 7th, 2010 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Lots o’stuff cooking on the drawing board right now. Nothing “big” but a lot of smaller projects add up: Workplace Poster Illustration– My usual assignment for The Marlin Company Character Illustrations– Sort of a personal commission job doing individual illustrations of his dummies for ventriloquist and comedian Jeff Dunham Feature Article Illustration– Full pager for School Library Journal Couple of personal commissions– Stay tooned for details on an official personal commission format and availability… I’m currently “between” assignments for the MAD animated show (wrapping production on a series of episodes prior to beginning on some new stuff) and MAD Magazine… although no doubt they’ll be… READ MORE
October 5th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Last night’s Cartoon Network’s MAD episode featured a segment with some of my artwork… the “Extreme Home Makeover: Fortress of Solitude Edition”. Here is a sampling of some of the art I did for it: According to the Cartoon Network’s schedule, next week’s episode will also have one of the segments I worked on… “The Batman Family Feud”. READ MORE
October 4th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
A great article on a great cartoonist: Al Jaffe in the NY Times. Al’s getting a lot of press lately now that his book Al Jaffee’s MAD LIFE is now available… in fact you can order it here. My copy is on the way. Al Jaffee is one of the true geniuses of visual humor, and at 89 is still sharp as the proverbial tack and producing great work. To say Al’s life has been “eventful” would be the ultimate stupid answer to a snappy question, if you’ll pardon the reversal. The article linked above touches briefly on what has been a life of epically… READ MORE
October 4th, 2010 | Posted in News
This past weekend I attended the annual meeting of my chapter of the National Cartoonists Society AKA the North Central Chapter In Omaha, Nebraska. We were treated to beautiful fall weather, great speakers and events and great company. The speakers, meeting and events all took place in the Old Market area of downtown Omaha, a charming series of bricked streets brimming with local restaurants, pubs, shops and galleries. The event was organized by Omaha World Herald editorial cartoonist and chapter member Jeff Koterba and hosted by KANEKO. KANEKO is a combination gallery, museum studio and educational facility and is self described as “an open space… READ MORE
October 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Like you I use a nib (i.e. a dip pen and ink) to draw cartoons with but unlike you I don’t have deadlines to worry about. Artwork inked with a nib can take a long time to dry before you can erase any pencil lines and scan into the computer to be coloured. Do you have a number of pieces on the go at any one time or do you have to just go and do something else. I can’t imagine a client would accept, “sorry, the ink isn’t dry”! A: Inking with a dip pen does lay down a lot of ink and… READ MORE
October 1st, 2010 | Posted in News
Okay… so I didn’t FLY to Omaha, Nebraska for the annual fall meeting of the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society which I am attending today and tomorrow. I didn’t have a cartoon of my trusty Buick barreling down the highway with the Iowa State Patrol in hot pursuit. A full report of our antics on Monday… READ MORE
September 30th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
MAD writer extraordinaire Desmond Devlin sent me a link recently to this fantastic Flickr “set” entitled “The Art of Jack Davis” which features some great quality scans of about 200 pieces of artwork by one of the greatest cartoonists and illustrators who ever lived. Warning: do NOT click on the above link unless you are prepared to spend at least an hour perusing some little seen gems including album covers, posters, advertising art, MAD work and much more. READ MORE
