Tom's Mad Blog
December 31st, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
The final “Sketch o’the Week” for 2008 is of former child star Macaulay Culkin. I saw a small picture of him in a magazine and it stuck me how creepy he looks. He retains just enough of his 10-year-old features from his “Home Alone” days to be recognizable, but he’s now nearly 30 with this thick giraffe neck and long, bony nose. The reference picture was taken in pretty bright sunlight, which left some heavy shadows that were interesting. I’m not sure if he’s even still in the entertainment business, as his appearance in the magazine was a result of the tragic death of his… READ MORE
December 30th, 2008 | Posted in News
I’ve seen my artwork stolen off the internet and used as samples for dozens of live caricaturists all around the world. I’ve seen it put on postage stamps from South American and former U.S.S.R. countries and sold in sets on eBay. I’ve seen it being used on many websites and being sold as prints online. I’ve even seen a caricature I did of Jesse Ventura tattooed on somebody’s shoulder. This one might top them all: Yep… looks familiar. The above shoe throwing extravaganzas took place near the University of Tehran and the U.S. Embassy in Iran on the 26th of December and featured as targets… READ MORE
December 29th, 2008 | Posted in Surf's Up Dept.
I’m busy working on a few jobs right now, but here are some tidbits from the last week of interest around the interwebby: Who Blotches the Watchmen Dept. Fox, that’s who. On Christmas Eve Judge Gary Allen Feess issued a ruling in favor of Fox in the rights dispute case over the new Watchmen movie that is supposed to premiere on March 3rd. Fox alleged that they owned the rights to produce and distribute a Watchmen movie, and that producer Larry Gordon was breaking a contract between himself and Fox guaranteeing those rights by producing the Zack Synder film and distributing it through Warner Bros.… READ MORE
December 28th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: While in school at Syracuse I heard (maybe from Nick Meglin) that the artists of MAD were not paid that well. Essentially they traded exposure in MAD to secure freelance work from other sources. Can you tell me if that was true and if it is still true? If not is payment in accordance with the Graphics Artist Guild standards. Also there is the usual gang of idiots but does Mad negotiate on a separate basis for say a “visiting artist” i.e.. CF Payne? A: This is a bit of a delicate subject, because I am not sure if it is proper to discuss… READ MORE
December 27th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Just a quick post today. Here is this week’s political caricature for The Independent. It will appear in tomorrow’s column both online and in print. I’d love to do more newspaper illustration. Unlike magazine work, it’s much more of a “quick and dirty” sort of exercise. Often you get only a day or so to do the job. It’s less intense because the images need to be relatively simple due to the restrictions of printing on newsprint, and the short deadlines mean you donlt have time to rethink everything over and over. It doesn’t pay all that well (especially these days) compared to magazines or… READ MORE
December 26th, 2008 | Posted in News
A screen capture from “The Watchmen” motion comic I’ve written in the past about the exciting work that my friends Michael Jantze and Kelly McNutt are doing in exploring the transformation of static comic strips into a format for the 21st century. The challenge is to figure out a way to translate the traditional strip comic into a multimedia format that keeps the original feel and function of the strip and is both visually arresting and relatively quick and inexpensive to produce. The idea is to bring strips into the age of the internet by making them deliverable by e-mail, web or cell phone in… READ MORE
December 25th, 2008 | Posted in General
Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Holidays to those celebrating other occasions this time of year. I hope the season finds you happy and healthy in the company of family and friends. For those looking for a little Christmas inspiration, this post from last year about a special Christmas gift that TV personality Rachel Ray gave our autistic daughter Elizabeth (without even knowing she did) says a lot about the simple power we all have to make the world a better place for those who need a little help. READ MORE
December 24th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is a theme-park style study of Mary-Louise Parker of Showtime’s “Weeds”… another show I hear is good but that I don’t watch. My “theme park” style of drawing is spontaneous, loose and cartoony using a 3mm 4B lead in a lead holder, a blending stomp and a lot of arm movement. I’d make this into a park sample with a little work on the likeness but I’d have a tough time coming up with the “pot” gag that would get past the theme park police. READ MORE
