Tom's Mad Blog
February 18th, 2008 | Posted in News
The official brochure for the upcoming 62nd Annual National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards weekend is now arriving in member’s mailboxes, so it’s safe to share the artwork I did back in December for this year’s event (text designed by Steve McGarry): Humans (from left to right): Mike Peters, Sandra Boynton, Mark Tatulli, Mort Gerberg, Tom Batiuk. Cartoon characters: uhhh… you figure it out. Click image for a closer look… As always the art will be on the official Reuben Weekend t-shirts and other stuff, but this year it’s also serving as the cover of the brochure and program. It’s always a pleasure to do this… READ MORE
February 17th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: What do you do to keep yourself motivated and avoid burn-out? A: That’s a tough one, because frankly I don’t stay motivated and avoid burn out. You would think that if you do something you really love to do for a living then working would be like going to a candy store every day. The reality is that no matter how much you like doing what you do, it’s still work and some days you just don’t want to work. I think this is especially true when you do creative work, because while it’s not ‘digging ditches’ it’s mentally and creatively exhausting. Sometimes you… READ MORE
February 16th, 2008 | Posted in General
I got this cool video link via the National Caricaturists Network‘s message board forum. This short film won the BAFTA for animated short and was an Oscar nominee a year later. It’s a great homage to the flavor of old school Hollywood movies, but “The Big Story” is that it features an incredible caricature of Kirk Douglas… three great caricatures of him, in fact, at different ages: I don’t know how long the embedded link will work for this, so in case it’s busted click HERE for a direct YouTube page of the video. The reason I wonder about the validity of the embed link… READ MORE
February 15th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
A biopic about the life of MAD and E.C. Comics publisher William M. Gaines has been long rumored and connected to a number of possible directors, actors and studios including HBO. It now seems that the ball is rolling once again on the film project. Yesterday several film websites announced that John Landis, veteran director of comedy classics like Animal House, Blues Brothers and Trading Places, has signed to direct the film and is working on developing the project with screenwriter Joel Eisenberg. The movie, currently titled “Ghoulishly Yours, William M. Gaines” is going to focus on the creative teams that produced the classic E.C.… READ MORE
February 14th, 2008 | Posted in Tutorials
This series of “How to Draw Caricatures” tutorials are a just a small taste of a larger and much more in-depth book I wrote called The Mad Art of Caricature! The book is 175 full-color pages, lavishly illustrated and contains greatly expanded explanations of the concepts presented in these tutorials, as well and a great deal of additional material on caricaturing other facial features, posture, hands, expression and more, techniques on drawing from live models, doing caricature for freelance illustration and for MAD Magazine. This is a must have book for anyone interested in caricature, cartooning or humorous illustration. You can order it online here.… READ MORE
February 13th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Better late than never today… I am getting bored with all the heads I’ve been doing lately so I thought I’d do something with a figure this week. This is NBA star Vince Carter, although I didn’t really work too hard on the caricature. I spent more time studying the folds and action of his uniform. These fast shutter sports action shots capture billowing clothing in very unnatural feeling “frozen” positions, so when drawing them it’s better to simplify rather than trying to duplicate every single tiny wrinkle. I went halfway between simplifying and going wrinkle-crazy. READ MORE
February 12th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic shops now and on news stands Tuesday, February 19th: MAD # 487 (Mar. 2008) Cover (Uncredited) The Fundalini Pages (Charles Akins, John Caldwell, Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer, Garth Gerhart, Jeff Kruse, Jacob Lambert, Greg Leitman, Ryan Pagelow, Adam Rust, Sam Sisco, Jack Syracuse) “Zeroes” (Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond) The Darker Side of The Lighter Side (Dave Berg) Monroe and… High School Musical (Anthony Barbieri, Tom Fowler, Ryan Flanders) Zygote 101 (Scott Bricher) If Classic Old Movie Scenes Were Filmed Today (Dick DeBartolo, Hermann Mejia) Planet TAD!!!!! (Tim Carvell, Brian Durniak) Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper) Why George W. Bush is in Favor… READ MORE
February 11th, 2008 | Posted in General
Plenty going on right now including some substantial blog posts and tutorials coming this week after a long time in waiting. The website has also been neglected a bit lately, and so I updated it last night with seven new pieces in the Portfolio, 4 new selected MAD pieces in MAD Art and seven new caricatures in the the Me Gallery. The caricatures of me in the Me Gallery come from Jhomil Bansil, Neil Kempsell, Dan Shultz, Mike Lynch, Tiary, Anthony Pagano and Fred Eyer. Thanks for the great caricatures of me and for being patient in waiting for them to get posted. As far… READ MORE
