Tom's Mad Blog
March 1st, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: With all the jobs you have going on at the same time, how do you juggle them all?¬¨‚Ć When you have a deadline for MAD and a job doing a poster and other odd jobs coming up, what do you do?¬¨‚Ć Do you work on the MAD in the morning, and the poster in the afternoon?¬¨‚Ć And what is your limit in terms of taking on more work?¬¨‚Ć Will you only do a certain number of projects at a given time? A: Time management is something that can be difficult to get a handle on as a freelancer. Ideally you don’t ever want to… READ MORE
February 28th, 2009 | Posted in News
Last weekend my local chapter of the National Cartoonist Society (if you can call a chapter that encompasses Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado “local”) met in Lincoln, NE to judge our assigned division of the NCS Reuben awards, have a chapter meeting and listen to several terrific speakers in the bargain. Some fermented beverages were also consumed. NCC Members deep in contemplation of the entries. First up was the judging of the divisional award for “Editorial Cartooning”. This was a tough subject as it was necessary to try and be objective about the work and set aside your own personal political tastes.… READ MORE
February 27th, 2009 | Posted in News
On my way to San Francisco today, but at least I’ll have something to read on the way! Issue # 3 of the excellent “Stay Tooned!” magazine appeared in my mailbox on Wednesday. This issue features profiles of two of the members of my local NCS Chapter, the “North Central”: editorial cartoonist Paul Fell and illustrator Cedric Hohnstadt. Also featured are profiles on Chad Carpenter, Benita Epstein, R.J. Matson, Jim Scancarelli, Richard Thompson and Mike Witmer. There are addtional articles by Mark Tatulli, John Kovaleski and Mike Edholm, as well as regular columns and contributions by R.C. Harvey, Norm Feuti and myself. Cover by Richard… READ MORE
February 26th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As I mentioned before, I have suddenly found myself attending WonderCon in San Francisco beginning tomorrow and running through Sunday evening. This happened very much at the last minute… in more ways than one. Before I begin to go into the gory details, here is my official schedule of appearances at WonderCon: Fri. Feb 27th: 4:00 pm- 5:00 pm: DC Comics Booth Sat. Feb 28th: 12:00 pm- 1:00 pm: DC Comics Booth 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm: Super Capers Movie Promo Booth (1412) Sun. Mar 1st: 11:00 am- 12:00 noon: Super Capers Movie Promo Booth (1412) UPDATE– I will also be spending some time at the… READ MORE
February 25th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The International Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA, formerly known as the NCN) just announced their guest speaker(s) for the 2009 Annual Caricature Convention and Competition on November 2nd-7th in Sandusky, Ohio: It’s an all MAD lineup featuring: Sam Viviano– Longtime MAD artist and current art director Mark Fredrickson– Frequent MAD cover artist, former airbrush demigod and current digital painting master Hermann Mejia– The brilliant “artist’s artist” for MAD, caricaturist, painter, sculptor, genius Tom Richmond– An unworthy schlub along for the ride That’s quite a lineup, and as far as I know very unique. As Sam pointed out to me, it will be possibly the first… READ MORE
February 25th, 2009 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A very quick (I’m talking 10 minute) study of somebody I’d better get used to doing caricatures of…¬¨‚Ć U.S. President Barack Obama. READ MORE
February 24th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Click for a Closer Look MAD had a difficult dilemma concerning their proposed parody of the movie “Watchmen”… the question of when to do it. For once the problem was not in getting a reliable advanced script. MAD occasionally tries doing movie parodies prior to the release of the films, so that they will be on the stands around the same time the films were hot. This doesn’t always work out, as the source material the writers would work from were often leaked scripts that didn’t turn out to be accurate… like the time we got the ending wrong for “X-Men 2”. Supposedly the source… READ MORE
February 23rd, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic book stores now and on news stands on Feb. 24th: MAD # 499 (April 2009) Cover (Mark Frederickson) The Fundalini Pages (Desmond Devlin, Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dwyer, Drew Friedman, Garth Gerhart, Marc Hempel, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Barry Liebmann, Kevin Pope, Sam Sisco, Ward Sutton, Jason Yungbluth) What the Heck is the Difference? (Uncredited) Botchmen (Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond) A MAD Look at Trade Schools (Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Colorist: Luth) Digital TV Facts (Jeff Kruse) The Decided Disadvantages of an On-Line Education (John Caldwell) The Darker Side of the Lighter Side (Dave Berg, Uncredited) A Letter from Jamie Dimon (Dick DeBartolo) MAD’s Unheroic… READ MORE
