Tom's Mad Blog
October 2nd, 2007 | Posted in General
Some grapes still on the vine even in late September in Sonoma The Lovely Anna and I have been lucky enough to travel to some wonderful destinations together over the years. Places like New York City, Hawaii, New Orleans, Paris, Cancun, Chicago, Scottsdale, Orlando, Atlanta and a number of other cities and areas of the US and the world. We’ve enjoyed all of them and often play a little game about what it would be like to live there (especially Hawaii), but in the end we always agree that home is Minnesota. We just can’t see ourselves living anywhere else, even given the attractions of… READ MORE
October 1st, 2007 | Posted in News
This weekend is the annual Minnesota “FallCon” comic book convention at the State Fairgrounds. The last few years I’ve managed to get there once or twice. This year I’ll be at a table with a stack of MAD’s to sign, a bunch of original art for sale and I’ll be doing caricatures as well. Last year we combined the con with our chapter meeting for the North Central Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, and had a North Central table plus did a panel discussion on cartooning with myself, Micheal Jantze (THE NORM comic strip), Cedric Honstadt (OPPOSITE FORCES, and 3-2-1 PENGUINS ) and Jerry… READ MORE
September 30th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: My question is about how you go about getting your ideas for an assignment or a piece. I assume your clients offer different amount of direction, where do you get your concepts when you have a bit more freedom? Also, do you see the end image in your imagination before putting it down on paper? Have you ever been stymied? A: I always tell people that illustration is communication, and my job as an illustrator is to communicate an idea, message or subject to the viewer through an image inthe same way the writer of whatever article I am illustration is doing with words.… READ MORE
September 29th, 2007 | Posted in General
Virtually every year The Lovely Anna and I go to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, a weekends-only fair in August and September set up like a renaissance village complete with buildings, actors in character, shows, costuming and a ton of food and drink. Our first “Ren Fest” together was 20 years ago, right after we’d become engaged. We’ve only missed a handful of years since. It’s a lot more fun to go in costume than just in jeans and a t-shirt. A lot of people really get dressed up and some play their part as well as any of the ‘professional’ actors on the grounds in… READ MORE
September 28th, 2007 | Posted in General
I am a terrible impressionist. I can only do impressions of other people doing impressions… like your standard Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Connery, etc. They aren’t very good. However I have found that many caricaturists are actually pretty good mimics. It might have to do with some kind of empathy with their subjects. ..who knows? One such caricaturist is a young man from Hawaii who occasionally comments on this blog, Piotr Walczuk. He’s a fellow member of the National Caricaturists Network, and his talent for voices is amazing. I’ve been meaning to posts some links to his website for a while now, and now he’s got… READ MORE
September 27th, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Here are a few of the projects I’ve wrapped up in the last week or so… at least the ones that are okay to share at this time: Workplace Poster: This one ended up being a lot tougher to do than expected, as the client wanted the main car on it’s own layer so he could do an animation of the image as well as a static poster. that meant I had to draw the cars parked behind the main car, as well as complete the front and back end of the main car. I also had the foreground cars on their own layer so… READ MORE
September 26th, 2007 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
“The Bourne Ultimatum” actor Matt Damon… I wanted to have some fun with the body and hands with this one. READ MORE
September 25th, 2007 | Posted in General
When I was a kid the start of the fall TV season was a big deal. We marked the calendar and gathered around the living room to watch our returning favorite shows and new shows that looked interesting. I remember seeing the season premiers of “The Incredible Hulk”, “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “The Wonderful World of Disney”, and my parents never missed “Dallas”, “M*A*S*H*” or “Dynasty”. Personally I was more excited over the start of the fall lineup of Saturday morning cartoons and shows… “Shazam/Isis Power Hour”, anyone? Like most things in the 21st century, it’s all different now. TiVo and the DVR especially… READ MORE
