Tom's Mad Blog
November 15th, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: With your recent “Bo Confidential” project, and in light of the new MAD Magazine business model, have you considered personal pet projects for development under the MAD umbrella? A: Yes I have. While things have changed (and are still changing) at MAD there is an unspoken rule that any regular contributor to the magazine can approach the powers-that-be and pitch ideas for things like books and they would be given due consideration. Likewise the publishers that have handled publication of other MAD books like Watson-Guphill will give a good look at any book project from a MAD artist or writer. Of course, that doesn’t… READ MORE
November 14th, 2009 | Posted in News
Bobble Rep, the iPhone app conceived and produced by Ray Griggs and featuring my caricatures of all 540 members of the 111th U.S. Congress was APPROVED by Apple late last night and is now available on iTunes for the low, low price of 99 cents (cheap). This after my innocent little blog post of a few days ago caught fire and was picked up by major news outlets and high traffic tech blogs. Apple came to its senses yesterday and approved the app. You have to wonder how much of the decision was based on the press covered and image hit Apple had taken, and… READ MORE
November 14th, 2009 | Posted in General
I’m currently in Sydney, Australia for the 2009 Stanley Awards for the Australian Cartoonists Association. Just got back from the awards ceremony itself. Australia has a rich history of cartooning and has some incredible talent. The ACA is a terrific organization and the people here have made us feel very welcome. I did a presentation and a caricature workshop on Saturday, and attended several other panels and presentations as well. Very nicely organized and some great speakers. The main speaker of the weekend was Pat Oliphant, the influential and brilliant political cartoonist who was born and raised in Australia but had lived and worked in… READ MORE
November 13th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Here is a look at the two pieces I have in MAD this issue: MAD 20- Gates Vs. Crowley Everybody remembers the big deal that was made out of “Beer Summit” this summer, when Obama invited Harvard professor Henry Gates and Cambridge police Sergent James Crowley to the White House and had a beer with them and Joe Biden on a patio table on the lawn. More was made out of that than the event that led to their invitation: when Crowley and other police officers arrested Gates on charges of disorderly conduct when he was confronted by the officers when he and his driver… READ MORE
November 12th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic books shops now and on news stands soon: Here’s a close up of the glove… note the familiar jewels!! MAD # 502 (January 2010) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Glenn LeLievre, Desmond Devlin, Kevin Pope, Darren Johnson, Scott Nickel, Jeff Kruse, Bob Staake, Mark Fredrickson, Ryan Pagelow, Tom Bunk, Dick DeBartolo, John Caldwell, Farley Katz, ) The MAD 20- The Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2009 The Canonization of Michael Jackson (Mark Stutzman) Corporate Bailouts (Hermann Mejia) Jon and Kate Plus 8 (Jack Syracuse) Henry Gates Arrested in Own Home (Tom Richmond) Dick Cheney Won’t Shut Up (Jeff Kruse) Angry Town… READ MORE
November 11th, 2009 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Click for a closer look… I have to cheat this week and post a sketch for a recent poster job instead of doing one in the sketchbook. The assignment here was to draw a scene showing a lady butting in line at the grocery store but having the man getting pushed back in line only mildly exasperated by it. The intent is to show that getting bent out of shape over something is not the best way to do things… unless you are trying to get attention for a rejected iPhone app, then in works like a charm. READ MORE
November 10th, 2009 | Posted in News
Wow. The power of the internet is an amazing thing. Yesterday I posted a little rant here on The MAD Blog about Apple’s head-scratching rejection of Bobble Rep, an application conceived and developed by film director Ray Griggs for which I was commissioned to draw a caricature of each of all 540 members of the 111th United States congress. As usual I just wrote off the top of my head, grammar errors and somewhat acerbic tone included. 24 hours later my blog was twice crashed by overwhelming traffic coming from links on virtually every major independent Apple blog/website including TUAW, 9to5 Mac and Macworld, from… READ MORE
November 10th, 2009 | Posted in General
Yep, I’m off again on the final leg of what has been an insane year of traveling and speaking at cartoonists events and other functions… five continents in the last 5 months. This time I’m taking The Lovely Anna along to Sydney, Australia where I will be speaking and doing a caricature workshop at the Australian Cartoonists Associations Stanley Awards Weekend. However this time we will be staying for a week to see the sights including some time in the Hunter Valley vineyard area. Look for a report from the Stanleys and a few others from “down under” over the next week, as well as… READ MORE
