Tom's Mad Blog
February 5th, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
If there was ever any doubt that Time Warner’s financial struggles were a key factor in MAD‘s switching to quarterly publication and laying off several (more) staffers, this article from My Way News should squash it: Time Warner swings to 4Q loss on hefty writedown TW lost $16.03 billion in the last quarter of 2008. Knowing all that was going down, is it any wonder TW sold all the remaining and most valuable original MAD cover artwork, and then cut publication and personnel? It was a company wide bloodletting, and althogh recent drops in circulation didn’t help even if MAD was still selling over 200,000… READ MORE
February 4th, 2009 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s another “cold” sketch where I was completely unfamiliar with the subject. When you attempt a drawing like that you are entirely dependent on that one photo reference to provide all the information for your drawing. That makes it superficial and often causes it to lack life and/or the kind of strong likeness and personality you can get by drawing someone who’s features and mannerisms you are more familiar with. This is Oscar nominated actress Amy Adams from the movie “Doubt”. I should be more familiar with her as she is a hometown girl from Minneapolis. I thought she had an interesting nose and fun… READ MORE
February 3rd, 2009 | Posted in General
In the wake of the “MAD going quarterly” announcement, one common response I’ve read is that MAD didn’t make any real attempts to create an internet presence to compliment (supplement?) it’s printed incarnation, and that helped lead to the circulation difficulties. I’m not sure how anyone works out that offering MAD content for free on the internet would somehow equate to getting people to pay for content in a magazine, but certainly in terms of introducing MAD to new young readers who spend most of their time on the internet, it makes some sense. Almost all magazines these days have websites with some kind of… READ MORE
February 2nd, 2009 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Something a little different this week for The Independent… one of the column’s characters is a groundhog in honor of Groundhog’s Day. I’m told we’ll be back to doing local politicians for next week’s column. READ MORE
February 1st, 2009 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Q: When I was a kid, Mad was all in black and white.¬¨‚Ć All your jobs are in color.¬¨‚Ć Do you feel this affects how you work compared to when Mad artists didn’t have to worry about coloring?¬¨‚Ć Are there things in the sketching and inking process you have to sacrifice because of the coloring phase? A: As I have said here in the past, I will always feel a little like I missed out on the “good old days” having not been a part of the old black and white MAD. That isn’t exactly accurate, as I technically did appear in the last issue… READ MORE
January 31st, 2009 | Posted in News
Yes, it’s that day again… the national holiday that isn’t officially recognized (yet) but one we all look forward to the other 364 days of the year. Yes, its National Gorilla Suit Day. What is National Gorilla Suit Day??? Are you joking?!? It began, as almost all nonsensical and idiotic things do, with Don Martin. A series of cartoons in the 1964 book Don Martin Bounces Back! concerns the misadventures of Fester Bestertester and his railings against various gorilla suit companies and the holiday National Gorilla Suit Day. Proving that Don Martin was about 40 years ahead of his time, his National Gorilla Suit Day… READ MORE
January 31st, 2009 | Posted in News
Yesterdays’ deadline for submissions for the NCS divisional Reuben awards has left my studio overflowing with nearly three dozen submissions for the “Editorial Cartoon” category which my North Central Chapter is judging. We’ll be meeting in Lincoln, NE next month to judge the entries. That reminds me of somehting I have been meaning to tell folks about. It has been some years since the website of the National Cartoonist Society’s website was updated, but recently it’s gotten a facelift. In flew in sort of “under the radar”. The new site, designed and created by fromer NCS president Steve McGarry‘s sons Joe and Luke McGarry, sports… READ MORE
January 30th, 2009 | Posted in General
I’d like to take a second to shamelessly plug a new book that will be released to the wide, wide world in March but is currently available for pre-order at an internet near you! Joe Bluhm is one of those artists that makes other artists jealous. His talent is prodigious, his enthusiasm for his art immense, and his dedication to it all inspirational. I kind of hate him… but not really. Actually he’s a good friend, and he’s got a new book coming out that is going to be a must have for the bookshelf. The book is called “Sketch Infectus”, and it’s chock full… READ MORE
