Tom's Mad Blog
May 22nd, 2007 | Posted in General
The Calvin and Hobbes video I linked to a few days ago has generated a lot of discussion concerning copyrights and “fair use” on other boards that featured it. On the same subject, this video has been making the rounds on a lot of illustration blogs and message boards lately: It was produced by Stanford University‘s “Fair Use Project” and advised by Lawrence Lessig, a prominent figure in copyright and fair use law. It begins with the following disclaimer (done as a parody of the familiar “FBI” warning before all DVD/VHS films): WARNING: Federal Law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute, or exhibit portions of copyrighted… READ MORE
May 21st, 2007 | Posted in General
Regular readers may remember a month or two ago I wrote about the announced release of Adobe‘s Photoshop CS3, and how I was planning on not caving into the pressure to upgrade right away. I was planning on waiting for any bugs to be worked out and for prices to possibly drop a bit for the upgrade. Well, I caved. I got the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Deign Standard upgrade, with CS3 versions of Illustrator, Indesign Photoshop and the latest Acrobat a few weeks ago. I used it to do some illustration work for an ad job last week, which included a fully painted illustration.… READ MORE
May 20th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How about an article or two about how to caricature? I’m a cartoonist, but I’ve never been able to caricature well… I’d love to hear some of your tricks and tips. Thanks for the great blog! A: Your welcome and thanks for the compliment. I’ve been in the process of doing a book on drawing caricatures for a long time now, but I keep changing my mind whether I want it to be a ‘how to’ on drawing live caricatures, an overall thesis on caricaturing in general, or a combination of both. I’m afraid the combo would be confusing, as learning the art of… READ MORE
May 19th, 2007 | Posted in General
Only once a generation or so does a comic strip come along that is embraced that it becomes a classic. Peanuts, of course, is the ultimate example but more recently Calvin and Hobbes fits that bill. It was a real shame Bill Watterson quit after only a decade or so of doing it… the art, characters and writing all blended to create something special. Even his “off” days, the ones where the gag was one of those weak ones, were enjoyable. This is via The Daily Cartoonist: This apparently was created as a final project by an Italian film school animator. I’m not sure how… READ MORE
May 18th, 2007 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
Back when it was announced, I wrote this article on the upcoming iPhone and how candy-like the appeal would be for it… at least for me. It may be a long time before I look into getting one now. I talked at length with a friend who is as AT&T Wireless store manager about the upcoming iPhone. Under condition of anonymity he told me most AT&T employees are unhappy with Apple and the way they are leaving AT&T on the hook for what is sure to be angry customer backlash over Apple’s handling of the ‘release’ of the gadget. They are not allowed to tell… READ MORE
May 17th, 2007 | Posted in General
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May 16th, 2007 | Posted in General
The next two weeks leading up to Memorial Day weekend are going to be ugly, and I don’t expect to find the time to write too many meaty blog posts. The Dreaded Deadline Demon will probably be making a few appearances. Last week The Lovely Anna and I took a grown-ups night off and went with friends to dinner at Chambers Kitchen in Minneapolis, after which we attended a benefit auction and concert for PACER Center, a local foundation that serves disabled children. Chambers is a new restaurant by famed chef Jean Georges, and dinner was excellent. I am sure Anna will be reviewing our… READ MORE
May 15th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Since we are doing video links already this week, here’s one from the Simpson’s episode where the family visits NYC and Bart wanders off to find the MAD offices: I seem to remember hearing about another episdoe (or maybe this same one?) where the MAD offices gets blown up by a missile. Chances are after 9-11 that one won’t be seen on reruns. I couldn’t find that one on YouTube. READ MORE
