Tom's Mad Blog
August 8th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Q: When you’re doing a piece for MAD, where do you get your reference material? Does the movie company send you a variety of production stills? Do you just do an image search online? A: That process has changed a lot over the years, even in the relatively short time I have been with the magazine. Back in the old days when MAD sold close to (and once over) 2 million copies of each issue movie studios actually lobbied MAD to do a parody of their films. Not with bribe money of course, but by by sending them the press kits and even inviting their… READ MORE
August 7th, 2010 | Posted in General
Facebook is a really great resource for keeping in touch with family and friends… unless you let it get out of control. I originally started my Facebook page with the intention of having it a combination of personal and professional “friends”, so I never refused a friends request. Almost 2,500 friends later, it was starting to really become a headache. I was getting wall posts from people asking me to critique their work, was constantly being tagged in “photos” of people’s art so I would go there and take a look at it, I was tagged in notes that I had nothing to do with… READ MORE
August 6th, 2010 | Posted in News
I’ve operated a caricature concession business at the ValleyFair! amusement park in Shakopee, MN since 1991, and one thing that park has been missing is a real “character brand”… Disney of course has Mickey Mouse and co., Six Flags has the Warner Bros. cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as well as the DC Comics superheroes, Universal has the Hanna Barbera characters like Yogi Bear as well as Universal movie characters, a deal for comic strip characters, the Marvel Superheroes and now Harry Potter. Valleyfair had the Berenstein Bears and a couple of home grown characters called Colonel Ohmpa-pa and Chocolate Moose… no… READ MORE
August 5th, 2010 | Posted in News
Debuting today on the National Cartoonists Society website is Thursday “Member Spotlights”… brief looks at NCS members/ legends in cartooning. Fittingly enough, the first spotlight is on cartooning giant Milton Caniff, the namesake of the NCS’s “Milton Caniff Award” for lifetime achievement in cartooning. These spotlights are written by NCS member Leif Peng, and a new one will appear each Thursday on the NCS blog. I’ll be reminding folks to check them out… they are short and insightful glimpses into the work and behind the scenes careers of some great cartoonists and members of the National Cartoonists Society. As the library of spotlights grows you… READ MORE
August 4th, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Click for a closer look… This week’s sketch is a cop out… sorry. This was a pencil rough for a recent poster illustration of a goofy halloween party scene. I’ll post the final art sometime soon. READ MORE
August 3rd, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As I mentioned before this is one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever done for MAD. I just thought Desmond Devlin did a smart job on the writing and I had the opportunity to have a lot of fun with the subject matter. Here’s a few images from the article… Click for a closer look… Click for a closer look… Now go out and buy a copy, you clod! READ MORE
August 2nd, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Well, not technically on the news stands until Aug 17th, but some subscribers are already receiving copies in their mailboxes so I figured the cat’s out of the bag anyway. BTW, this cover was shown to the crowd at the Comic-Con MAD panel and got a roaring laugh and applause… MAD # 505 (October 2010) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Sam Viviano, Jeff Kruse, Arie Kaplan, Paul Coker Jr., Emily Flake, Sam Sisco, Gary Hallgren, John Caldwell, Charles Atkins, Dave Crosland, Tom Bunk, Des Devlin, Kevin Pope) Glee Blows (A MAD Public Service Announcement) Tea Bagger Proof That Obama Is A Terrorist/Socialist (Stan Sinberg,… READ MORE
August 1st, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you have your work displayed throughout you home, or has your family tried to limit it to just certain areas? A: That’s an interesting question… what kind of art hangs in the home of an artist? There’s an old adage that goes “a plumber’s home always has leaky pipes” or “a carpenter’s home always has crooked doors”, meaning that when you do something for a living your house is the last place that same work gets done in. That is certainly true with me, as I have almost none of my own artwork on the walls of our home. I did a pencil… READ MORE
