Tom's Mad Blog
March 10th, 2009 | Posted in News
Al Feldstein served as the editor of MAD Magazine for almost 30 years, having taken over after Harvey Kurtzman left due to differences with Bill Gaines. Kurtzman took most of MAD‘s artists with him to do a humor magazine called “Trump!” for Hugh Hefner, leaving Feldstein with the unenviable task of rebuilding MAD almost from scratch. The rest, as they say, is history. Feldstein retired from MAD in 1984. Recently Al’s health has taken a wrong turn. On February 24th he was hospitalized for some tests after blacking out while at home on his ranch. Turns out he has heart problems that require bypass open… READ MORE
March 9th, 2009 | Posted in General
Disclaimer: Spoilers clearly marked, and there aren’t many… From “Botchmen” in MAD #499 The “Watchmen” and I go way back. I can’t credit it as the reason I got interested in comic books again. That distinction belongs to Frank Miller‘s “The Dark Knight Returns“. However I can say that, even more than Miller’s masterwork, “Watchmen” showed me that comics can be as literarily relevant as any novel. I was given my first copy as a gift for being a groomsman in my friend and fellow cartoonist Mark Engblom‘s wedding. Having not read it before, I remember Mark’s general comments about it to me being the… READ MORE
March 8th, 2009 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have a lot of trouble with facial hair AND head hair! I seem to freeze up when someone sits with 5 o’clock shadow beard or shaved head. Any help would be greatly appreciated. A: That question is difficult to answer because, like so many “how do I draw this…” inquiries, the answer is so dependent on the style of drawing. Someone with a more illustrative, involved style of drawing could not use the same techniques as someone who does a very cartoony style, or one that does a more graphic style. Therefore when answering such questions I invariably describe how I would do… READ MORE
March 7th, 2009 | Posted in Surf's Up Dept.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jETv3NURwLc[/youtube] I have seen this video featuring Louis C.K. on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” around for the last two weeks on the web and Facebook and such. It’s so incredibly true that I finally tracked down an embeddable version to post here. It is amazing how incredibly spoiled people are today, especially young people. Many have a misguided sense of entitlement that boggles my mind… it’s like they are owed whatever it is they want, and don’t think they should be required to earn it or earn money to pay for it. The internet is a prime example. Many people seem to think they… READ MORE
March 6th, 2009 | Posted in General
Here’s the trailer for the film… [youtube width=”490″ height=”300″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qob8TFQ3ZK8[/youtube] On March 20th the movie I worked on, “Supercapers”, is going to be shown in select theaters. Having gotten a chance to meet writer/director Ray Griggs last weekend at Wondercon and getting to see the entire film, I am really hoping it will do well enough to get national distribution. It’s silly, fun movie that pays homage to some of the films and directors that shaped Ray’s desires to become a filmmaker like Star Wars, Back to the Future, Etc. It also is a tribute to the superhero genre… and not in the dark, depressed way… READ MORE
March 5th, 2009 | Posted in General
I finally have a few minutes to write further about my experience at WonderCon in San Francisco last weekend. I don’t “do” a lot of comic conventions because MAD is sort of the red headed stepchild of comics and thus I am more of an odd man out than a typical professional guest.¬¨‚Ć Even so I do like to get out and see these events occasionally, mainly because they are a lot of fun and full of cool things to see and people to meet. Sadly, and it seems like AS USUAL, I had a job I needed to work on with a Monday deadline… READ MORE
March 4th, 2009 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A quick one of late night talk show veteran David Letterman. I confess while I used to watch Letterman a lot I haven’t seen him in years. I don’t watch any late night TV, actually. However I did enjoy this video list of the top ten bizarre Letterman guest appearances from TIME.com, spawned by the recent Joaquin Phoenix debacle. I remember watching the the Crispin Glover one the night it aired. READ MORE
March 3rd, 2009 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
I’m playing catch up already this week, despite my working on and finishing a full page magazine illustration while I was at WonderCon over the weekend. Here’s what’s cooking on the drawing board this week: Library Journal Magazine– Cover illustration due late next week concerning library budgets and how tight they are becoming. MAD– Not one but two jobs for MAD on the board. One is a two pager I did the roughs for last week but that got bumped to issue #501, so that deadline is a long way off now. Now I am one of seven illustrators doing spots for a Frank Jacobs… READ MORE
