Tom's Mad Blog
January 24th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
Last week in San Fransisco Apple held it’s annual ?¬?bergeekfest, the Macworld Conference and Expo. Macheads slobber and salivate for months leading up to this show, speculating about what new geeky goodness Steve Jobs will announce is about to hit the market (and consumer wallets) that year. Third party vendors who make Mac compatible hardware and software products also show off their newest innovations at the expo. Usually there is a dearth of new toys and gadgets, many of which are super high on the “tech envy” meter. That’s all fine and well, but how many of these new toys are ready for the real… READ MORE
January 23rd, 2008 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
This is just a goofy doodle I did working up some concepts for a spot illustration job. It reminds me a little of a piece Hermann Mejia did in MAD a while back with Spartans on a game show of some kind. Then again it also reminds me a little of a Wally Wood drawing… except not as good. READ MORE
January 22nd, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The latest issue of MAD (and presumably several DC comic books this month as well) has a special advertising insert similar to the one done several months ago for Ball Park Franks. The concept is the same… kind of a mini MAD with “articles” pertaining to the ad subject. Unlike the Ball Park ad, this one does not advertise a product as much as a group of people… NYC sketch comedy troupe “The Whitest Kids U’ Know“. The “WKUK” had a sketch comedy television show on the FUSE Network in 2007, and has moved to the Independent Film Channel for season two. IFC is uncensored… READ MORE
January 21st, 2008 | Posted in MAD Magazine
On news stands tomorrow, January 22nd: MAD # 486 (Feb. 2008) Cover (Uncredited) The Fundalini Pages (Charles Akins, Peter Bagge, Scott Bricher, Tom Bunk, Desmond Devlin, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Jacob Lambert, Jack Syracuse, Sumukh Torgalkar, P.C. Vey) George W. Bush “Spins” his Final State of the Union Address (Idea: Frank Jacobs, Ward Sutton) Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper) Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions (Al Jaffee, colorist: Ryan Flanders) Zeroes- A MAD Political Parody (Uncredited) A MAD Look at Death (Sergio Aragon?¬©s) MAD Presents- The Whitest Kids U Know- A Special Pull Out Advertising Section Cover (Mark Fredrickson) Get To Know The Whitest Kids U’… READ MORE
January 20th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You mentioned you drew caricatures in bars to help support yourself in school. What’s the financial arrangement between you the artist and lounge owner drawing in bars? A friend told me-why bother spending/wasting money socializing in bars when you can get paid for doing the same thing working in a bar as a bartender-bouncer-barback? I thought about it and he made sense-but drawing sounds a lot more fun and lucrative. A: I didn’t really make much money doing it, but I did draw caricatures in bars and clubs when I was a full time student between summers at the theme park. The Lovely Anna… READ MORE
January 19th, 2008 | Posted in General
The Lovely Anna and I are off today on our annual week away from kids, work and the Minnesota winter. We have a timeshare on Maui, and spend one very relaxing week sleeping in, reading books, sitting by the pool or the sea and eating at some excellent restaurants. This is our time to charge our parental and professional batteries, and take a little selfish me time in order that we do not go crazy and beat our kids, the neighbors or a few art directors I know. Fear not, gentle reader… through the magic of pre-posting and wifi The MAD Blog will continue it’s… READ MORE
January 18th, 2008 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
It never fails… whenever I am about to try and take a little time off the phone starts ringing. I always feel guilty when I start complaining about having a lot of work… I am very lucky to stay busy. Still it would be nice to go on vacation without either having to pull some all nighters to get jobs done or having to bring something along to finish up when on the trip. Here’s the final for that workplace poster I showed the sketch of the other day: Click for a closer look… … I just got a rush job for an L.A. based… READ MORE
January 17th, 2008 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
They say there are two kinds of computer users…. those who have lost data in a hard drive crash, and those who are going to lose data in a hard drive crash. I learned that lesson the hard way, as most eventually do. In October of 2006 I was in the middle of two big projects when my Dell Precision Workstation suddenly flashed the Dreaded Blue Screen of Death at me. The entire story is here, but the end result was that in desperation I ran out to buy the only computer available on a local store shelf that had the graphic horsepower to allow… READ MORE
