Tom's Mad Blog
January 15th, 2008 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Kind of quiet on the drawing board right now, after a crazy December. Once that MAD job was in the can a week or so ago I have just a few smaller jobs with no crazy deadlines in sight. Here are some things I’ve got going that I can share: Advertising Character- The client wanted a simple, small spot of an adult male with a “Home Alone” kind of expression. Very quick job. Pencil sketch and final after some revisions to tone it down a little and change the hair, etc… Sherlock Holmes Illustration- This is going to be used by the same folks… READ MORE
January 14th, 2008 | Posted in General
Okay this is a little creepy… Writer’s strike or not, it looks like NBC’s The Bionic Woman is in total system failure. I wrote about the show after it’s premiere, basically saying there might be promise but I would have to wait and see. Who knew the mediocre first episode would be the best one, and it would be all downhill from there? I wanted to like the show, but between horrible miscasting and even worse writing it needs to get it’s bionic plug pulled. Rumors have been flying about it’s cancellation while it is on hiatus during the writer’s strike, but unless they can… READ MORE
January 13th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I know there is no substitute for actual art instruction. Books have often help me though. I was wondering if there are any books that you recommend on cartooning in general? What books do you recommend for caricaturing? Most of books are geared toward kids or just seem to scratch the surface but don’t give the tools needed to make the connection between what makes a cartoon a caricature. A: There is no definitive book on how to draw caricatures. There are a number of them out there, but each has it’s own focus (i.e. live caricature, general caricature, cutsey cartoon caricature) so you… READ MORE
January 12th, 2008 | Posted in General
This Saturday’s “Surf’s Up Dept.” is very MAD video-centric, with a few other stories tossed in. Revenge of the Mommy Dept. Des Moines mom Jane Hambleton proclaimed herself the “Meanest Mom on the Planet” when she sold her son’s car through the want ads of the Des Moines Register after finding alcohol under the seat of the vehicle. The ad read: OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don’t love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet. Hambleton was then… READ MORE
January 11th, 2008 | Posted in General
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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
