Tom's Mad Blog
March 6th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised here is a glimpse of the process behind the art for MAD’s “Toyota Story” parody poster image: The job was described to me as a fake poster for a “Toy Story” spin-off film, done in a typical Pixar look, with the gag being the toys behind the wheel of a runaway Toyota and several of them being run over and squashed. Naturally the effectiveness of the parody would rely on the artwork looking as genuinely Pixar-like as possible, so I know I had a lot of tight painting ahead of me. Here is my initial sketch: Click for a closer look… Based on… READ MORE
March 5th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Click for a closer look… Comic’s Alliance debuted the above piece I did as part of an exclusive “sneak peek” from MAD #503, so I guess I can now share it here. Actually the “Toyota Story” piece WON’T be in MAD #503, as I just completed it on Tuesday and that issue had been to the printer already by then (unless there was some delay I am not aware of). By the way, the official news stand date for #503 is March 23rd. “Toyota Story” should soon be available for download on MAD‘s website gallery of downloadable parody posters, and may make it into a… READ MORE
March 5th, 2010 | Posted in News
David Paccia is the author of the interesting blog “David-Wasting-Paper“, which features interviews with cartoonists in the form of a series of survey questions. There has been a great run of terrific cartoonists interviewed on David’s site, but I’m afraid that run has come to an end. Yes, David has finally scraped the bottom of the barrel and has stooped to interviewing me for his blog. Looks like he redeems himself next with my friend Rick Stomowski (Soup 2 Nutz), but in the meantime he wears the yoke of shame. However, do not let that dissuade you from visiting David’s Wasting Paper and reading the… READ MORE
March 4th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Yesterday the movie blog /Film shared an exclusive sneak peek of Serigo Aragon?¬©s “A MAD Look at Avatar”, which will appear in issue #503, due out this month (Click on images for a closer look): READ MORE
March 3rd, 2010 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I’m too busy to do a regular sketch this week so here are a handful of rough sketches for a (fairly) big storyboard job I am working on. I removed any references that might give anything from the film away. The following is part of the opening and closing of a short animated segment where these two squirrels are gag characters… A bunch of other stuff happens in the scene, and then we go back to the squirrels… I haven’t done storyboards since college, but it’s a fun and interesting exercise… pure drawing and storytelling with little concern over the finishing process. READ MORE
March 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing
…you’re getting too old to pull multiple all nighters you find yourself staring at two deadlines, one a last minute rush job for your best client and an unusual family issue tossed in the mix and all of a sudden it’s Tuesday and you haven’t slept since you woke up on Sunday morning. Ah, well. Plenty of sleep tonight… maybe right now actually. In the meantime here is a rare real painting I did last week for an equally rare non-publication job. This is an executive who was a big MAD fan as a kid, commissioned as a gift (at the last minute, ‘natch). Very… READ MORE
March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Freelancing
Blechhh….. READ MORE
February 28th, 2010 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: This question is concerning line weight with multi-panel illustrations. It’s probably an illustration 101 concern, and I know you touch on it a bit in your inking tutorial, but maybe you wouldn’t mind fielding it for me anyways. Do you illustrate the entire composition on one page or do you pencil and ink the panels separately and then put them together after (example: Two and a Half Wits for MAD)? How important is it to maintain the same average line thickness, with regard to depth, in each panel? A: I always rough out, draw and ink the entire page of a comic book style… READ MORE
