Tom's Mad Blog
September 14th, 2009 | Posted in News
The morning after my little talk in Aitkin, MN I was able to visit the exhibit “What’s So Funny? A Celebration of Cartooning!” in the nearby Jaques Art Center. Located in a renovated Carnegie Library, the Jaques (pronounced “Jay-Kweez”) Art Center is a marvelous little museum featuring a permanent collection of work from well known local wildlife artist Francis Lee Jaques, rotating exhibits and regular educational classes and workshops. A more accurate title for the show might be “What’s So Funny? A Celebration of MINNESOTA Cartoonists!” because that’s really the focus of the exhibit. Curator (and Minnesota cartoonist) Duane Barnhart did a lot of telephone,… READ MORE
September 13th, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You’re making a living with your artistic skills. From that vantage point, what art skills would you hope would be taught to students (12-15 years old) with similar cartooning / illustration aspirations for their livelihood? A: At the age you cite there is no specific set of skills or instruction that I feel would be of direct benefit to an aspiring cartoonist/illustrator. At that point it’s all about being exposed to as much art, illustration and inspiration as possible and to experiment with various mediums… and of course to draw. As a teenager an artist is still very much a blank canvas and is… READ MORE
September 12th, 2009 | Posted in News
Hot on the heels of the big Disney buys Marvel news was this week’s announcement of the restructuring of DC Comics into DC Entertainment Inc. which was quickly followed by DC publisher Paul Levitz stepping down from the head job and “transitioning” to a full time writer, editor and consultant. No word on who will be “transitioning” in. Diane Nelson, who handled the Harry Potter marketing for Warner Bros. was named the head of the new DC Entertainment Inc. I have gotten a number of e-mails asking me “how does this affect MAD“? My answer: I have no idea. I have no idea what is… READ MORE
September 11th, 2009 | Posted in Freelancing
Today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has a special pull-out section entitled “2009 Vikings Season Preview” that features two full page illustrations I did of Brett Favre and company. One is on the front of the section and one on the back, each is meant as a “cover” but obviously with different possible messages. The job was to illustrate two extreme scenarios of the outcome of the “Brett Favre” experiment at quarterback. They wanted not only to convey Favre as a savior in one and as a failure in the other, but also to show how you can flip the section over to see the opposite possibility.… READ MORE
September 10th, 2009 | Posted in News
As I have mentioned previously I’ll be doing a speaking presentation at 7:30 tonight at the 40 Club and Convention Center in Aitkin, MN in conjunction with the “What’s So Funny? A Celebration of Cartooning!” art show at the nearby Jaques Art Center. My talk will feature a slideshow presentation of a bunch of samples of my work, a step-by-step of a typical MAD Magazine movie parody job and a few other surprises, as well as a Q&A at the end. The entry fee is a donation to the local food shelf or one to the Art Center. I’ll also be signing autographs after the… READ MORE
September 9th, 2009 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
In honor of the release of a ton of remastered Beatles albums on CD and the video game “The Beatles: Rock Band” this week’s sketch subject is the late John Lennon. Lennon is probably the most elusive of the Fab Four to try and caricature. His look changed a lot over the years, and different angles of his face seemed to reveal different and sometimes opposing observations. Was his face long and thin, or did it have a lot of roundness and baby fat to it? His nose is long and bony, but did not dominate his face. Was his chin prominent or understated? I’m… READ MORE
September 8th, 2009 | Posted in General
Today is my favorite holiday of the year. This is a holiday that you will find on no official calendar, but it’s one all seasonal theme park caricaturists adore. Read that last link if you don’t understand… you need to spend at least one entire summer sweating out on the midway drawing endless lines of snot nosed kids, vain teenagers, drunk couples and surly art critics in order to get it fully. As a theme park concession owner, that goes double for me. Yesterday I was ultimately responsible for 12 art concession locations in three states with a combined work force of about 60 artists.… READ MORE
September 7th, 2009 | Posted in General
If I had to credit one thing for being the reason for my getting interested in comics, cartooning etc. as a kid it would have to be the 60’s Batman TV show. It was in early reruns when I was a little kid, my having been born in 1966 the year it was first on prime-time television. Like so many kids of that era, I spent a lot of time running around the neighborhood with an old bath towel pinned around my neck and a cardboard batarang in my hand… The difference is I still run around the neighborhood occasionally with a cape and a… READ MORE
