Tom's Mad Blog
September 9th, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
Q: What are the first, and most crucial, steps in setting yourself up as a freelancer? What bookkeeping measures or programs do you suggest? How difficult is dealing with taxes? If you were starting out today, what would your “to-do” list look like? Thanks! A: The absolutely most important first step is setting up your identity. What I mean by that is creating a professional image though the organization and presentation of your work and yourself as an illustrator. All the peripheral stuff like book keeping, taxes, etc. are just paperwork. They are important in their own right, but only if you are getting work… READ MORE
September 8th, 2007 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
Ah…the world of video gaming. Other than a brief period of time when I was obsessed with beating the original “Crash Bandicoot” on PlayStation 2 (mission accomplished, btw) I have never been into video games. Number One Son Thomas on the other hand plays a fair share of them. He’s not alone in that. Video games and consoles are a multi-billion dollar a year business ($7.1 billion in the U.S. alone in 2005). Those kinds of dollars have produced epic races to new technology, cut throat business practices by the major players and lots of competition between platforms. Sony’s PlayStation 2 is far and away… READ MORE
September 7th, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
I’ve been very busy as usual the last two or three weeks… here’s some of what I’ve been working on: MAD– Finished a 3 pager on Tuesday for issue #483. As always I can’t share any images but next week I’ll be able to post some peeks at the job I did for issue #482. By the way, MAD #482 will be a pretty unique issue thanks to their approach to the features “MAD’s look at the 50 Worst things in Advertising”. More on that next week. Magazine Feature Illustrations– For Fade In Magazine, an entertainment industry publication I’ve done occasional work for. This should… READ MORE
September 6th, 2007 | Posted in News
Writer and blogger extraordinare Mark Evanier reminds us that today is the birthday of one of the most beloved and talented cartoonists of the last half century… the great Sergio Aragon?¬©s. Sergio’s work needs no description. He’s been a staple at MAD for 45 years, done about a billion issues of Groo the Wanderer and several billion other cartoons in almost every conceivable forum. To call him merely prolific is an insult. As Mark wrote in his book “MAD Art”: Since his sudden takeover, Aragon?¬©s has been in every issue (of MAD) but one (he had the flu). So let’s crunch some numbers: Figure 8-12… READ MORE
September 6th, 2007 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
As anticipated, yesterday Apple unveiled a completely updated line of iPods in advance of the holiday season at a special event in San Francisco. In addition to a refresh of all the current iPod models, including a redesign of their popular “Nano” line, Apple introduced a new direction in their iTunes Music Store business model… wifi access to purchases directly from their newest iPod model. Here’s a quick breakdown of the latest iPod line: The iPod Shuffle, a button sized player with limited capacity aimed at the ultra portable market, got just a simple facelift with some new colors but the specs and price remained… READ MORE
September 5th, 2007 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Still under deadline so this “sketch o’the week” is from an older sketchbook… a study of caricaturist Corbett Vanoni from an online message board community where we all posted our photos and drew each other. I wish I still had time to do that kind of thing, but life intervenes. I was doing a lot of crosshatching in those days. READ MORE
September 4th, 2007 | Posted in General
All full time theme park caricaturists know what I am talking about. The best day of the year. I wish I had it off, but… READ MORE
September 3rd, 2007 | Posted in General
Some live work from Labor Day weekend at Valleyfair. Sorry about the bad lighting, cropped pics, etc. It’s impossible to take a decent picture of the caricatures out there. Also, apparently it was “Gigantic Ears get in Free Day” at the park: READ MORE
