Tom's Mad Blog

Speaking of LOST Sketches…

May 14th, 2010 | Posted in News

The above sketch of Jorge Garcia as Hugo “Hurley” Reyes I did as a part of “National Doodle Day“, where lots of sketches and drawings done by various artists as well as TV and movie personalities are auctioned off to benefit Neurofibromatosis Inc., a “non-profit organization whose mission is to provide services to individuals with Neurofibromatosis (NB) and their families. NB is an unpredictable disease that cases tumors to form on your nerves, sometimes resulting in disfigurement, paralysis, deafness, blindness or cancer.”- From the Doodle Day website. The auction just went “live” yesterday and will be ending on Sunday, May 23rd (also the day the… READ MORE

Bonus Sketch o’the Week

May 13th, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

Since I missed last week’s LOST “Sketch o’the Week” and since yesterday’s sketch of Juliet… well… sucked, I thought I’d do a second one today. Here is Nestor Carbonell as the ageless Richard (i.e. Richardo) Alpert. READ MORE

Sketch o’the Week

May 12th, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week

I debated whether to even post this caricature of LOST’s Elizabeth Mitchell as Dr. Juliet Burke, since I lost the likeness somewhere along the way between the rough sketch and the final washes. However, seeing as how I didn’t post one at all last week I’d better get something up today. READ MORE

Frank Frazetta R.I.P.

May 11th, 2010 | Posted in General

Click for a closer look… Today the interwebby will be full of tributes and remembrances of Frank Frazetta, who passed away at the age of 82 yesterday… ones that will be much more eloquent and personal than anything I could say (including this one by my pal Ed Steckley). I never met the man, but I am like so many who were in awe of and inspired by the work of this master artist. As a young reader of the Robert E. Howard “Conan” stories (and the pastiches of Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp that were camouflaged among Howard’s actual tales), the cover… READ MORE

How to Work for MAD Magazine

May 10th, 2010 | Posted in General

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW-z76F9SYQ[/youtube] Grrrrreat…. “Jimmy Jamz” of Super Experts USA reveals exactly how to get your work into MAD Magazine. It’s almost the exact path I took to break in… except I sent them work from about 6th grade on. Now the work will be even more scarce for everybody at MAD. Thanks a LOT, Jimmy Jamz!! :mad::mad: READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

May 9th, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag

Q: Great art you posted the other day for the upcoming NCS Reuben awards. I was wondering what the requirements are to become a member of the NCS? A: Thanks for the kind words about the Reuben illustration. The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists that started in 1946. You can read all about the history of the NCS here. The requirement for membership, at least as a regular member, is that you are a professional cartoonist i.e. you make a living drawing cartoons. That encompasses a large gamut from syndicated cartoonists to animators, comic book artists, illustrators, gag cartoonists, greeting card… READ MORE

Latest Directory of Illustration Page

May 8th, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing

I’ve been advertising on and off in Serbin Communication’s Directory of Illustration for about 15 years now, and while the results aren’t exactly staggering I usually get enough new jobs from my ad to pay for it. The real value of it comes from not picking up new jobs per se but new clients from whom I get ongoing work. I still believe the best way to market yourself as a freelancer is a combination of an internet presence, direct mailing and ads like this that get distributed to tens of thousands of buyers of illustration. The toughest part for me is always putting the… READ MORE

A MAD Address

May 7th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine

I was sent a link to this story from MAD editor John Ficarra earlier this week. The story is from a blog called “Scouting NY“, where a gentlemen named Nick Carr recounts tales of some of the hidden gems and interesting locations he’s stumbled across in the course of his work… scouting locations in New York City for films. This particular story is about 225 Lafayette Street, currently condos on the corner of Spring Street in Soho, but back in the 1950’s it was an office building with one very MAD tenant: Entertaining Comics (E.C.) run by a young Bill Gaines, who had been forced… READ MORE

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