Tom's Mad Blog
July 11th, 2008 | Posted in General
A Mort Drucker “Bob Hope” cover As I wrote about on Monday, I had occasion to have a pleasant lunch with writer Mark Evanier on Sunday, and among other things we discussed some MAD Magazine history. Mark is quite an expert on the history of comics and MAD, and as always told me a number of things I didn’t know. We got on the subject of classic MAD artists, including the great Mort Drucker. Mark asked me if I knew who Owen Fitzgerald was. I was chagrined to say I did not. Fitzgerald was apparently one of those comic book and animation artists who “fell… READ MORE
July 10th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
Okay, this is more than a little geeky, but nonetheless pretty cool. Other than the pic above, I did this entire post directly from my iPhone! One of the more annoying things about the iPhone’s web capabilities is it’s absence of flash support. Since my blog software, WordPress, uses flash for much of its dashboard functionality, that means I have never been able to post directly from my iPhone… at least until I installed this nifty plugin called WPhone. I think my pal Cedric told me about it a while ago but for some reason I never went and got it. It works pretty well,… READ MORE
July 10th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
To upgrade or not to upgrade…actually there is no question at all. The easy answer, IMO anyway, is a big NO. That’s saying a lot coming from me, a guy who is always itching to get the latest and greatest in cool gadgets. I bought the original iPhone on the day it was released. I will not be getting this upgrade, which is being released tomorrow… in case you haven’t heard. Why not? The cost of the new iPhone is half what they were when it debuted last year in June, and they are offering to cancel the previous contract agreement for first gen iPhone… READ MORE
July 9th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is of “The King”, rock and roll legend Elvis Presley. I’ve always found Elvis kind of a hard subject, I think mainly because I have this mental image of what he looks like and it doesn’t really match up with his actual features. If anyone wants some inspiration drawing Elvis, check out the blog of fellow Minnesota caricaturist Zack Wallenfang. He has been doing something really fun for the last several months that he calls “Elvis of the Day”. Each day he does a different drawing of Elvis. He’s up to 177 so far, but I see he’s fallen off the wagon… READ MORE
July 7th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Detail of a “line and Color” illustration for MAD Detail of a painted illustration I did for a recent magazine cover Recently I got into a debate with a fellow illustrator about the wisdom of having more than one “style” of artwork that one would actively peddle to possible clients. This fellow was adamant that it was the smartest way to get greater amounts of work and also to appeal to a broader audience of potential clients. I disagreed. I’ve blogged about this subject before, where I told the story of meeting cartoonist George Karn, who also was a multiple-style advocate. He was quick to… READ MORE
July 7th, 2008 | Posted in General
Mark dispensing wisdom on this panel discussion An older picture of Mark, Sergio and me at an L.A. convention Many has been the time I have linked to, referred to and/or sung the praises of Mark Evanier‘s News From Me blog. Mark is one of the best writers working in comics, especially on the humorous side, today. Imagine my surprise when I visited his blog the other day to discover he was currently acting as the guest of honor at a sci fi/fantasy convention taking place about 15 miles from my house in Bloomington, MN!! What, no phone call?? In defense of Mark, Minneosta is… READ MORE
July 6th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You make cross-hatching look so easy. Mine always ends up looking like a messy patchwork quilt. What’s the secret to good cross hatching? A: Well, thanks for the compliment but I don’t consider myself much of an expert on crosshatching. With me it’s an exercise in controlled chaos. If you want to see a caricaturist who uses crosshatching to great effect, check out the work of Jan Op De Beeck or Vin Altamore. Here’s a basic crosshatched pattern one layer at a time: Some History- Crosshatching is a technique for adding values to a drawing by layering intersecting lines together to create the illusion… READ MORE
July 5th, 2008 | Posted in General
Don “Mr. Crayola” Marco has apparently been getting a lot of internet “press” in the last two years mainly from sharing via e-mail. My friend and fellow cartoonist Ken Alvine of Sioux Falls, SD sent me an e-mail about this artist because he was born here in my homestate. I do not know where the following bio came from: Don Marco was born in Northern Minnesota in the late 1920’s.??ᬨ‚Ć His interest in art was evident even before starting school.??ᬨ‚Ć As a young adult in the Army Air Corp, he began his life’s career in Air Traffic Control, which continued until his retirement from Honolulu… READ MORE
