Tom's Mad Blog
August 13th, 2010 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
The future?…. Here’s a link to an recent CNN article on how the iPad is boosting the appeal of digital comics. I absolutely agree that the iPad and it’s descendants will be the new format for publishing, including comics and magazines. I can see a virtual news stand in the future full of individual issues and subscriptions for magazines, comics, comic books and newspapers… delivered without user effort to your mobile tablet device in a format that is easy and natural to browse, read and enjoy. However I don’t see the iPad being that device, but some other piece of hardware that doesn’t force the… READ MORE
August 12th, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68BEuofLl7A[/youtube] This is a teaser trailer for “I Want Your Money”, a politically conservative film by Ray Griggs that I did a whole bunch of animation character design for. You’ll see a few seconds of some of the animated segments. Unfortunately Ray had a lot of trouble with the animation companies that did the CGI and frankly the final results leave a lot to be desired. I think the modeling and basic characters look fine, but the talking animation part is rough. Here’s one of the segments in full: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBXQhs6kwYc[/youtube] Just an added note- I have nothing to do with the message of this film…… READ MORE
August 11th, 2010 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Had to work at Valleyfair today, and it was so %$#$@ hot and humid I didn’t want to work in my sketchbook. So, here’s an airbrushed color sample of my “Flo” caricature sketch of a week or so ago… READ MORE
August 10th, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing
I do a few illustrations a year for Penthouse, which I have no qualms about doing so long as I am not asked to do anything pornographic. This is something they understand and only give me a call when they need a humorous illustration for an article that isn’t too “blue”. They are really great to work with. The September issue has a full page illustration I did for a humorous article about why guys have “sex on the brain” i.e. it’s all some guys think about. Initially the art director wanted me to do an image of a guy with his brain coming out… READ MORE
August 9th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I’ve gotten so many e-mails from people asking for help identifying the one or two pundits they can’t figure out in the above panel that I thought I’d just put together a “key” to all of them… so here ya go: Click for a closer look… Lawrence O’Donnell Monica Crowley Bernie Goldberg Jonathan Alter Joe Scarborough Ann Coulter Rudy Juliani Frank Luntz Fred Barnes Frank Rich Rich Lowry Steve McMahon Fareed Zakaria Joan Walsh Thomas Friedman Dana Perino Margaret Carlson Howard Dean Maureen Dowd Eugene Robinson Richard Wolffe Oliver North Newt Gingrich James Carville Pat Buchanan Sanjay Gupta Robert Reich Karl Rove Donna Brazile Paul… READ MORE
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
