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
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
This week’s sketch is of a rather obscure subject. I was catching up on some Netflix movies in the home theater the other day and I watched “28 Weeks Later”, the not so great sequel to the pretty good “28 Days Later” apocalyptic horror film. The character of Tammy was played by a young English actress with the unusual name of Imogen Poots. She had a very haunting look with heavy eyelashes/eyeliner and icy turquoise eyes, a strongly angular face shape with a distinctive nose and bruised looking lips. Quite an arresting look that inspired me to draw her. Anyway, I did this one partly… READ MORE
Last night episode four of the new MAD animated show on the Cartoon Network aired another of the segments I worked on… a parody of the TV show “Glee”. This was easily the most work I’ve done so far for a single segment. I think there were 14 main characters to draw plus a number of cameos, extra faces and expressions. To try and save time I did them in tight pencil form and then colored them as opposed to doing any polished linework… the result was a lot rougher than I had hoped. However I thought the animation folks at the WB studios did… READ MORE
Last week the Sunday Mailbag question was about how I seem to do a lot of political type work. Well, it IS an election year, and so I’ve been getting my fair share of projects relating to politics. I must say the conservatives are spending a lot more money than the liberals this time around… almost all my projects recently have been for the right side of the aisle. Here is a the progression of one from last month. This more painted style caricature of Sen. Harry Reid is being used for some kind of campaign promotion: This is one of a few rough sketches… READ MORE
Q: Now that I’m working freelance full-time, I’m wondering: what do you do when you get sick? As I’m typing this, I’m dealing with a nasty cold and although I want to spend the day in bed, there’s work to be done. What’s your experience with being sick while dealing with deadlines, Tom? I can’t imagine trying to pull an all-nighter with a puke bucket by your drawing desk! A: That reminds me of my standard answer to the question “What’s it like working at home?” My answers are: “The best thing is you get to work out of your home” and “The worst thing… READ MORE
If you draw caricatures for a living, the annual convention and competition of the International Society of Caricature Artists is as close to utopia as you are likely to find…. and I’m not just saying that because I used to be president of the organization. It really is an amazing event. Imagine over 200 caricature artists set up in one huge room drawing each other silly for four days using almost every imaginable medium and technique in between daily workshops, guest speakers and presentation by some of the most talented caricaturists working today. By the end of the week every square inch of wall space… READ MORE
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV6S4YTtvKk[/youtube] Here’s a short promo for the new book “Al Jaffee’s MAD Life” where Al recounts the story behind his famous “Fold In” feature for MAD and reminisces about the MAD old days. READ MORE
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