Tom's Mad Blog
November 2nd, 2009 | Posted in General
I am still not over my jetlag from the USP trip and now I am off to Sandusky, Ohio for the ISCA convention where I am a guest speaker. The Lovely Anna is only tolerating this because she is going to go with me to Australia for the Stanleys next week. At some point I may need to do some work to pay for some of this stuff… Who am I kidding? I got up at 4:00 am to finish a job this morning before flying out and have two more jobs to work on with me. READ MORE
November 1st, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: As a live caricaturist, I’ve noticed that some days, things flow quite naturally.¬¨‚Ć I can observe what I see and properly draw it on the page with a little exaggeration here and there.¬¨‚Ć But on occasion, I have “one of those days”.¬¨‚Ƭ¨‚Ć These are the days that I find it extremely difficult to get the result I want – likeness, line quality, and so forth are a struggle to achieve, and simply “trying harder” doesn’t seem to get me too far.¬¨‚Ć You have been doing this a long time, and I wonder if you had any insight into how to deal with one of… READ MORE
October 31st, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Over at Mark Evanier‘s excellent blog, NEWS FROM ME, he posted a little historical fact about how MAD switched out the cover of issue #122 after Robert Kennedy‘s assassination: The original cover of #122 The revised cover The original cover showed a series of Mort Drucker caricatures of the those people considered the main candidates for president after Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not seek re-election. After the cover was completed Robert Kennedy was assassinated, and that led to MAD replacing him with Alfred in the upper right balloon. This is not the only time such a thing has happened. In 1991, MAD had… READ MORE
October 30th, 2009 | Posted in General
Late on the evening of Oct. 19th our band of ten landed at COB Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. Formerly it was FOB Speicher (forward operating base) but because of it’s size was reassigned as a COB (contingency operating base). It was also formerly Al Sahra Airfield under Saddam. Tikrit, of course, is famous for being the hometown of Saddam Hussein. Getting off the plane it was the first of many surreal moments… hard to believe a bunch of middle aged cartoonists were standing on the sands of Tikrit, Iraq. Stephan Pastis and I turned to each other frequently during the next few days to say… READ MORE
October 29th, 2009 | Posted in General
Arriving at the airport in Kuwait City, I was prepared for some major culture shock. Traveling in Europe is one thing… usually you can figure out the meaning of things like signs based on the common nature of the Latin based languages, and they all use the same basic alphabetical charters which at least look familiar. Arabic, on the other hand, is totally indecipherable to one with no knowledge of the language. Every time I saw something written in Arabic I had the impulse to turn it upside down. The Kuwait Airport My fears were groundless. Almost every sign is Kuwait, especially road and direction… READ MORE
October 28th, 2009 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch subject is “Twilight” actor Taylor Lautner. I still refuse to draw Robert Pattinson on general principal. READ MORE
October 27th, 2009 | Posted in General
The 2009 NCS Cartoonist USO Tour band members: Jeff Bacon of “Broadside” and “Greenside” Chip Bok syndicated editorial cartoonist Bruce Higdon of Army Times, Army Magazine, Soldiers Magazine, and Stars and Stripes Jeff Keane of “The Family Circus” Rick Kirkman of “Baby Blues” Stephan Pastis of “Pearls Before Swine” Mike Peters of “Mother Goose and Grimm” Michael Ramirez of Investors Business Daily Tom Richmond of MAD Magazine Garry Trudeau of “Doonesbury” Our 8 day USO tour began at a Washington DC area hotel on Wednesday, October 14th where most of our band met, had a quick dinner and talked about our upcoming odyssey. As usual… READ MORE
October 26th, 2009 | Posted in General
A Little Background Last October eight Cartoonists from the National Cartoonists Society went on a trip to Landstuhl, Germany with a stop in Washington DC to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed, the Bathesda Naval Medical Center, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the Ramstien Air Force Base terminal and staging facility. You can read all about that trip here and here. The cartoonists were NCS president Jeff Keane (The Family Circus), Jeff Bacon (Naval Times/Broadside), Bruce Higdon (Army cartoonist), Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues), Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm), Chip Bok (editorial cartoonist), Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) and myself. The entire trip was funded… READ MORE
