Tom's Mad Blog
May 28th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Click for a closer look I ran across this partially completed ink drawing of “The X-Files” stars Robert Patrick and Gillian Anderson (this was when David Duchovny had left the show for his brilliant film career) from a number of years ago and thought, given the new movie coming out, it might be somewhat timely. I did the drawing just for testing out some new ink nibs and different kinds of ink when I was experimenting with different tools. You can see I used a sepia ink for some of it, which I found way too watery. In fact there are four different inks on… READ MORE
May 27th, 2008 | Posted in General
Another Reuben Awards in the books. This was our 10th time attending… The Lovely Anna and I have never missed one since I became a member in 1999. Cartooning is a strange business and occupation… it’s one where you strive to communicate with the world through humor via words and images, yet most do it sitting alone at their drawing table with little or no interaction with others. It’s a solitary process and the feedback you get can be little to none. That’s what makes the NCS such a great organization, and the Reubens such an important function to so many. It’s the one place… READ MORE
May 26th, 2008 | Posted in General
I had intended a nice, involved wrap up of the Reuben weekend today with lots of pictures both from the awards dinner Saturday and the various events on Sunday, but it wasn’t until this morning that I realized I did not bring the proper data cable along to transfer pictures from The Lovely Anna‘s camera to my laptop. Since I left my own camera at the room that makes me SOL until I get back home to the studio. Look for that post tomorrow. Here’s one more pic from my camera from Saturday’s event. Suffice it to say the Reubens were again a great time… READ MORE
May 25th, 2008 | Posted in General
There were seminars on Saturday by the irrepressible Mort Gerberg and the adorable Sandra Boynton, but I had to miss them both as I was busy inking a MAD job all afternoon. I did get to get dressed up and go to the awards ceremony that evening, though! Al Jaffee and Mel Lazarus First off, the winner of the Reuben for “Cartoonist of the Year”: Al Jaffee. Al is such a great guy and such an inspirational talent. Even though this award is really supposed to recognize the achievements of the past year’s work of a cartoonist, in this case it was really more of… READ MORE
May 24th, 2008 | Posted in General
It was an early morning yesterday when about 85 NCS members gathered in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton and boarded two buses to travel to our Habitat for Humanity project. NCS President Jeff Keane really wanted to make this outing a part of the Reubens to give attendees a chance to lend a hand to some of the people who are still struggling terribly from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area. There was a great response and despite the early hour and the long bus ride to the sites we worked on, the enthusiasm was very evident. Our group received a… READ MORE
May 23rd, 2008 | Posted in News
The Lovely Anna and I arrived in New Orleans yesterday afternoon… amid dark skies and thunderstorms. The weather doesn’t look too promising for the weekend. Hopefully there will be plenty of gaps in the downpours so we can see some of the city. Not much to report on “Day 0”. We had dinner reservations at a terrific restaurant called Cuvee just a few blocks away, where we meet up with Orlando caricaturist Keelan Parham and his wife Barbie as well as NYC illustrator Ed Steckley and his wife Heather… long time friends. After dinner we had a drink at the hotel bar and got a… READ MORE
May 22nd, 2008 | Posted in General
The Lovely Anna and I are on our way to New Orleans today for the 62nd Annual National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Awards. As always, the weekend is full of activities, seminars, events and other cartooning goodness. It can get a little wild at times, but that’s to be expected considering that the nature of professional cartooning is one of mainly solitude in our lonely little studios… when we get a chance to get together we make the most out of it. …oh, and as usual I’ll be working on a job when I’m there as well. Bleech. Look for daily reports here on The MAD… READ MORE
May 21st, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I’m afraid I have to cop-out again this week and resort to a sketch I did as part of some roughs for a product illustration job. This time it’s the democrats we made some fun of. Sorry about the crop. One of these days the item will be released and I can show all the artwork I did for the project. READ MORE
