Tom's Mad Blog
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
February 10th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: After years of doing what you do, how often do you find you need to refer to reference photos? I’d expect it with celebrities or well know figures, but do you have to pull out reference for rather ordinary things from time to time (vehicles, houses, interiors, etc.)? Or can you can usually work mostly from your imagination (mental picture)? Your illustrations are often so detailed (even backgrounds). I’ve never been able to (nor really worked on) drawing from memory. I would hope with repetition and practice that it’s possible, but just wondered during a typical assignment how much reference you might need to… READ MORE
February 9th, 2008 | Posted in General
I finally got a little free time and caught the “season premiere” of LOST and it’s second episode as well. I have to admit I was not in a hurry to watch the DVR’ed episodes… I just could not generate any enthusiasm for the show. Call it apathy after a great deal of disappointment last season and the incredibly long layoff. I don’t know if the writer’s strike was the reason they waited until January 31st to premiere the first show of the season, but I don’t think so. I believe I read that the creators planned it that way so they could show all… READ MORE
February 8th, 2008 | Posted in News
It’s that time of year again. Submissions for the National Cartoonists Society‘s divisional Reuben awards need to be received by February 23rd. From the NCS Website: Only work published between the dates of December 1, 2006 and December 31, 2007 will be considered. Please submit published tear sheets when possible and document when and where the work was published. Submissions must be submitted to their respective locations by February 23, 2008. Each submission must be accompanied by an Entry Form and Bio Sheet. Here are this year’s divisions: Television Animation Newspaper Illustration Greeting Cards Newspaper Panel Cartoons Book Illustration Advertising Illustration Feature Animation Gag Cartoons… READ MORE
