Tom's Mad Blog
June 16th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Hoo Hah! A few projects ongoing right now and sadly not much I can share yet. Here are two pieces I did a few months ago that is part of the “Super Capers” movie project I have been working on for some time now. They don’t give anything away as far as the movie goes, so I think it’s okay at this point to share them here. Sometimes jobs evolve as they progress along, and this particular job has definitely done that. The movie is a superhero spoof/comedy and my part of the production was to be three different jobs… “turnaround” illustrations of the 14… READ MORE
June 15th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I went full-time freelance several months ago and my wife and I just had our first kid (a boy) last Sunday. Obviously I’m taking some time off to get adjusted to have a new guy in the house but the work is starting to pile up. As I’m easing back into the work my question is how did you find that balance between work and family when working from home? A: I thought this would be a good question for today, being Father’s Day. First off, congratulations on your new arrival and happy First Father’s Day to you! This is my 18th. Since I… READ MORE
June 14th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
You drrrrty, drrrrty little tramp. Despite what Apple might want you to believe, Mac’s are not infallible supercomputers that “just work”. They are machines… and as such they break down, have technical problems, glitches, etc. just like any other machines. Hardware-wise they aren’t any better than PCs, and since you are severely restricted in what hardware you can use if your Mac has a design flaw of some kind it becomes a problem that cannot be easily corrected. That is one of the major drawbacks of using Apple computers… you have to take what Apple will give you with few, if any, other options. Take… READ MORE
June 13th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I occasionally peruse MAD Magazine message board forums like Mad Mumblings and the Official MAD Message Boards, and one common subject keeps getting brought up… … where are all the movie parodies? In years past, you could almost always count on at least one parody of a movie and/or a TV show in each issue of MAD… often one of each. TV show parodies are still fairly plentiful in the magazine, but in the last few years there has been a decline in the number of movie parodies. In 2007 there was a grand total of three movie parodies in MAD, “Spider-Man 3”, “Harry Potter… READ MORE
June 12th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
I admit it. I am a techno-gadget junkie. I love all that crap. Shiny new technology is cool and sometimes irresistible for me. The Lovely Anna calls it my only vice (okay, my most troublesome vice… however when she starts making fun of me about it I mention shoes and handbags and she shuts right up). I got the original iPhone the day it was released, although quite by accident and with only about a 2 hour wait in line. So, it was with great interest I read about the new iPhone 3G that was announced on Monday at WWDC. I really like my iPhone,… READ MORE
June 11th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A few months ago I did an odd piece for MAD where I was required to draw a number of MAD staffers as monkeys or apes. When doing it I found a lot of pictures of real apes and monkeys on the internet to use as inspiration and reference. A few of them came from a book called “Monkey Portraits” by Jill Greenberg. A little while later The Lovely Anna brought home this very book that she found on sale at the bookstore as a surprise. It’s chock full of funny and expressive portraits of simians shot with amazing detail and lighting. It’s weird how… READ MORE
June 10th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I believe I’ve mentioned, once or twice here on The MAD Blog, something called the “evergreen drawer” in the MAD offices. The evergreen drawer refers to articles that the staff at MAD keep laid aside for use in an undetermined future issue. For obvious reasons the articles that are put in the evergreen drawer need to be not of a timely nature i.e. their subject matter must be such that they can be run anytime and still remain basically relevant. Hence, “evergreen”. There are several reasons an article might end up in the evergreen drawer. The most common is that another article is fast tracked… READ MORE
June 9th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic shops this week and on news stands June 17th: MAD # 491 (July 2008) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Scott Bricher, Tom Bunk, John Caldwell, Matthew A. Cohen, Paul Coker, Dick DeBartolo, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Dan Long, Scott Nickel, Kevin Pope, Leonardo Rodriguez, Kiernan P. Schmitt, Bob Staake, Rick Tulka, P.C. Vey) G*d Damn America (Frank Jacobs, Jack Syracuse) A MAD Look at Going Green (Sergio Aragon?¬©s) Dr. Suess For The Digital Age (Darren Johnson, Gary Hallgren) The Pros And Cons Of Working At Home (Teresa Burns Parkhurst) Now That Anyone Can Become A Celebrity! (Jacob Lambert, Paul Coker) The Darker… READ MORE
