Tom's Mad Blog
February 5th, 2008 | Posted in General
Me by the legendary Al Hirschfeld! I meant to do this post back on January 20th, since that was the 5 year anniversary of the great Al Hirschfeld‘s death, but I guess all the Mai Tais I was consuming made it slip my mind. I was going to tell the story of my meeting Hirschfeld and how I got the above piece of priceless caricature art. I was elected president of the National Caricaturist Network in 1999, during their annual convention of that year. At the time, the NCN was growing rapidly and we were trying to put on a second event, a “Mini-Con”, at… READ MORE
February 4th, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Mad Magazine Uses Pulitzer Winners to Tweak Bush I’m assuming this article will be in MAD #487, out on the 19th of this month, but haven’t confirmed that yet with the staff. (UPDATE- Just got the info, yes, the article will be in MAD #487). In short, the article entitled “Why George W. Bush is in Favor of Global Warming” features various reasons illustrated by 10 different Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonists. MAD did something similar a few years ago when they did a spoof on superheroes with a number of goofy hero parody characters each illustrated by some of the top names in comic… READ MORE
February 4th, 2008 | Posted in General
Ugh. More of the same…. I’ve got several half done articles for blogging that I promise will get posted this week. Next week look for the first of my “Drawing Caricatures” articles. READ MORE
February 3rd, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you have any tips and tricks on drawing figures or composing a scene with multiple figures in it? I’ve tried practicing by drawing from life, but I feel like the “from life” experience I get is sometimes stilted by the fact that many people don’t want to be drawn while sitting on the train, etc (and I don’t want to be caught staring!). At the same time, I can really see the interaction when someone if right in front of me. Are there other methods that have helped you? A: Learning to draw the human figure is arguably the most important thing any… READ MORE
February 2nd, 2008 | Posted in News
Sometime back I blogged about ToonSeum, the new Pittsburg area cartoon museum that opened last fall. It looks the the museum has been busy with several great exhibits since it’s opening. A new one has just opened this month featuring the work of cartoon legend Morrie Turner of “Wee Pals” fame. The exhibit, Drawn in Black and White: Wee Pals and the Work of Morrie Turner will run until February 27th at the ToonSeum, located in at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, 1o Children’s Way, Pittsburgh, PA. If you are in the Pittsburgh area be sure to view the special feature on WQED’s “OnQ” airing… READ MORE
February 1st, 2008 | Posted in General
Yesterday in his terrific blog, fellow Minnesota illustrator Cedric Hohnstadt reposted an older article he had placed on his blog some time ago. The explanation for this “reprint” was that his blog’s traffic had increased dramatically recently, and most readers would not have seen this post… and presumably many others as well. That got me thinking… I often get e-mails or questions pertaining to topics I have already discussed or posted about, and it occurred to me that Cedric’s observation about increased traffic and newer visitors was probably the reason. One bad thing about posting something every day is that the MAD Blog Archives are… READ MORE
January 31st, 2008 | Posted in General
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January 30th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Have to cheat on “Sketch o’The Week” this week because I am swamped playing catch-up in the studio. This is from an old sketchbook, circa 1999. They are quick studies of cartooning legend Jeff MacNelly, of Shoe and multiple pulitzer prize winning editorial cartooning fame. He was a speaker at my very first National Cartoonist Society Reuben weekend in San Antonio in 1999, and I did these studies during his presentation. I’ve always been in awe at MacNelly’s immense talent, and it was a thrill to get to hear him speak. I remember at the time he was talking about how he was beginning to… READ MORE
