Tom's Mad Blog
July 25th, 2010 | Posted in General
Picture by Tom Racine We are going to dispense with the Sunday Mailbag this week in order to continue with our annoying coverage of San Diego Comic-Con. Yesterday was a busy day for me here, starting with the Mad About MAD panel at 10:00 am and then signings at both the DC Comics booth and the Warner Bros booth with fellow MAD men Sam Viviano and John Ficarra, and MAD animated show writer and producer Kevin Shinick, plus a surprise appearance on at the Quick Draw! program in between. I wish I had some pictures of the panel but unfortunately I do not. Tom Racine… READ MORE
July 23rd, 2010 | Posted in General
Day one at Comic-Con? Uneventful. Actually for once the crush of humanity was not that horrific and it was relatively easy to walk about the exhibitor floor. I did a little of that, but mainly stuck by both the DC booth for my signing and the National Cartoonists Society booth where I did caricatures and had some MAD originals for sale. The NCS booth is located at booth spaces 1307 and 1309: The NCS booth is pretty well done, IMO. Nice location, too. I’ll be there from 2:00 to about 3:30 today doing caricatures, sketches and selling those MAD pages. I’ll also be at the… READ MORE
July 22nd, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Well, here I am in beautiful and sunny clammy and rainy San Diego for Comic-Con 2010. The weather is suppose to improve as soon as this afternoon, but it looks like I might get wet on the way to the convention center this morning. I’ll be blogging from the convention floor and you have my promise: No “BIFF!” “POW!” or other sound effects will be lazily used in any headlines or posts. I’m not sure exactly why I ever go to comic book conventions. As I have written here before, MAD is sort of the red headed stepchild of comics… yes, it’s got plenty of… READ MORE
July 21st, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Usually I completely avoid drawing reality TV “stars” as they don’t need more encouragement or even as mild an extension of their mostly undeserved 15 minutes of fame as my modest little blog provides. However since I had already stooped to drawing his therapy-bound kids and his fame-seeking horror of an ex-wife, I figured I might as well do the trifecta and draw the deplorable Jon Gosselin. This one is a little different, done with a fine tip pen. READ MORE
July 20th, 2010 | Posted in News
One of the books that sees a lot of wear on my bookshelf is The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression by Gary Faigin. It’s a very comprehensive look into what happens to the face when certain emotions come into play, and shows how to draw someone displaying those emotions. That’s a pretty important skill when doing visual storytelling, and caricature artists can learn a lot from it as well. The author will be conducting a five day (FIVE DAYS?!?!) workshop on the subject this upcoming December at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, WA. The workshop must give thorough and comprehensive an entirely new… READ MORE
July 19th, 2010 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Well… vacation is over, I can tell you. Actually the old drawing board is a little light when it comes to heavy duty projects. Just a few small and one long, ongoing one- iPad App– Art for another app for Ray Griggs, the developer of Bobble Rep. Should have this done today. Caricature/Character Design– This for a UK company for an advertising project. Awaiting feedback on a round of sketches. Workplace Poster– My usual monthly assignment for The Marlin Company WB Animation– between episodes right now for the upcoming MAD Show That should keep me busy until the Comic Con starts in… only 3 days!!?! READ MORE
July 18th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Q: Why all the secrecy involving the MAD TV show and especially the magazine? I don’t see why you can’t at least say what movie [or TV show or other subject] you are working on for MAD… it’s not like they have any competition out there that might ‘scoop’ them is it? As for the animated TV show, when can we expect to hear some details?? A: Sorry if it seems like there is a Maxwell Smart “Cone of Silence” paranoia surrounding things I post about sometimes. It’s not just MAD you know… almost all the publications I do work with do not want me… READ MORE
July 15th, 2010 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgTcyjzXfTg[/youtube] I know I promised an artcentric review of the iPad a long time ago, but I haven’t had the opportunity to test out very many drawing and painting applications on it so far… I’m also wating deleivery of one of those silly marshmallow tipped “stylus’s”. I did run across this intriguing video recently, showing that someone is working on one of the two biggest limitations to drawing on the iPad… the lack of pressure sensitivity. At first I thought the case the iPad on the video is in might be the source of the pressure sensitivity, but from reading the brief description at tenonedesign.com… READ MORE
