Tom's Mad Blog
January 10th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
I’ve blogged a few times over the last year about the format war raging between two competing technologies in high definition disks, HD DVD and Blu-Ray. My opinion was that HD DVD was going to prevail for a number of reasons, but that the race was way too much in it’s infancy to call yet. A lot of things could happen to make a big impact overnight. It looks like HD DVD just got dealt an unexpected death blow. Last week Warner Bros. studios, which had been releasing it’s films on both formats, suddenly announced it’s intention to go exclusively Blu-Ray in May of this… READ MORE
January 9th, 2008 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Sketch in progress of “30 Rock” star and “Saturday Night Live” alum Tracy Morgan. READ MORE
January 8th, 2008 | Posted in Freelancing
I love being a freelance illustrator. While it is challenging in many respects the work is interesting and the deadlines intense, and it’s seldom boring. I don’t punch a time clock every day, collect my paycheck every other Friday and have to conform to anyone’s routine but my own. As I have said many times, financially it is a little more exciting that it needs to be, what with the constant uncertainty about the next job, and how much income will be forthcoming in a given month (or week, or year for that matter). I have been very lucky in that I have other resources… READ MORE
January 7th, 2008 | Posted in General
Underground Atlanta Caricatures Circa 2000 I’m back from Atlanta where I just closed up my long time caricature stand at Underground Atlanta, a downtown retail/tourist complex. As I had mentioned, it was really sad because it was my very first business endeavor and it had been through a lot over the last 18 plus years. Back in 1989 The Lovely Anna and I, freshly married and she just pregnant, moved to Atlanta from St. Paul, Minnesota because I took a job with Fasen Arts Inc, as manager of their new caricature operation at Six Flags Atlanta. I was 23, just graduated from art school and… READ MORE
January 6th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Your work is a total rip off of Mort Ducker’s style. How do you sleep at night?- Anonymous A: Other than when my wife pokes me when I snore too loudly, I sleep just fine, thanks. I usually don’t post anonymous questions or comments, but I thought his one would be worth answering. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that, but am confident in saying that my work isn’t a rip off of Mort Drucker‘s, and anybody who thinks so isn’t looking really looking. Mort will always be identified with caricatures in MAD, and anyone doing traditional ink line, cartoon caricature likenesses in… READ MORE
January 5th, 2008 | Posted in General
I had a nice, long blog post ready for today about dealing with deadbeat clients, but I have limited internet access here in Atlanta and can’t upload the article. It will have to wait until Monday. Sorry about that, folks. The mailbag question for tomorrow is controversial, however… so maybe that will make up for it. READ MORE
January 4th, 2008 | Posted in General
Deadlines conquered. Now I am off to Atlanta, Georgia on a very sad errand. After nearly 19 years I am closing up my caricature concession stand at the downtown retail complex Underground Atlanta. I’ll blog about it next week, but it was the first business I ever opened and I am sorry to see it die. …gotta catch a plane. Sorry, no time for a real blog post today. READ MORE
January 3rd, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Alfred E. Neuman is one of the most recognized pop culture icons in the world. Go figure, but it’s true. MAD didn’t invent him, he’s actually been around since the 1800’s, appearing in ads for children’s dentistry and other products. Maria Reidelbach‘s book “Completely MAD: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine” has a whole chapter on the origin of Alfred, but the bottom line is that nobody really knows for certain when the grinning gap-toothed idiot really first appeared in pop culture. As the story goes, original MAD editor Harvey Kurtzman had seen images of the “What- Me Worry? kid” from old ads… READ MORE
