Tom's Mad Blog
May 14th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
MAD has a Myspace page where Alfred posts announcements and info about the latest MAD stuff. On it Dick Debartolo, MAD’s Maddest Writer, posts comments and other stuff, including installments of a “Backstage Tour” of the MAD offices that are now on YouTube: Part One Part Two There is supposed to be a part three done but I have no idea when it will be posted. There isn’t much to the MAD offices, except for some awesome original cover art on the walls. They moved from the 5th floor to the 4th floor of the building that also houses DC Comics, and they lost some… READ MORE
May 13th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I noticed you do a lot of cropping in your work. Now do you do that more dramatic effect or is it for expediency? Will you do many thumbnails to arrive at your final piece? A: I’m not sure what you mean by “cropping”. “Cropping” is where one takes an image and removes some of it around the edges, like matting a photo and hiding some of the photo behind the matte. I don’t usually crop my images, as that is a waste of time. I would not want to spend time drawing and rendering an area of an illustration that would be cropped… READ MORE
May 12th, 2007 | Posted in General
I haven’t done a lot of self promotion in the last few years as I am lucky to have several steady clients that keep me very busy, and I seem to pick up enough other jobs through word of mouth to fill in whatever down time I have. I used to spend thousands for ads in source books like Serbin’s “Directory of Illustration“, but stopped when I was constantly turning down work for lack of time. The problem with that is eventually even the best of client relationships end. Art directors change, the concept and look of publications change, projects end or any of countless… READ MORE
May 11th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised, here’s a quick sneak peek at some of the art from the parody of “DOG the Bounty Hunter” in this month’s MAD: Pencil roughs of the splash page. Click image for a closer look Final colored art. Click image for a closer look A few panels from the parody… Surprisingly I rather enjoyed the show itself. You have to admire a man who places so much emphasis on his family and God as “Dog” does… even if the people he’s chasing are about as dangerous as your average librarian. TV also works magic on making someone look bigger than life… DOG looks like… READ MORE
May 10th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
In comic book shops today and on newsstands on Tuesday, May 15th: MAD # 478 (June 2007) Cover (Mark Frederickson) The Fundalini Pages (Charles Akins, John Caldwell, Paul Coker, Dick DeBartolo, Desmond Devlin, Darren Johnson, Jeff Kruse, Jacob Lambert, Glen LeLievre, Kevin Pope, Irving Schild, Jack Syracuse, Jason Yungbluth) Lewd and Disorder: It’s P.U. (Arnie Kogen, Mort Drucker) Rejected Army Recruitment Posters (Jacob Lambert, Irving Schild) 10 Ways to Liven Up the National Spelling Bee (Jeff Kruse, Paul Coker) MAD’s Vemonous Outtakes from “Spider-Man 3” (Uncredited) Monroe and… Cruelty Free (Anthony Barbieri, Tom Fowler) The Average 5th Grader Knows… (J. Prete, Peter Bagge) A MAD… READ MORE
May 9th, 2007 | Posted in General
I found a little tidbit in my latest copy of the National Cartoonist Society’s excellent newsletter “The Cartoon!st” about the opening of a very different kind of museum. It seems downtown Indianapolis is now home to “The American Super Heroes Museum“, which houses the collection of Dane Nash. Nash has been a lifelong fan of superheroes and has amassed a gigantic collection of Superman and Batman collectibles including vintage toys, games, posters, puzzles, figurines and other items. Nash apparently has an affinity for Tv and movie costumes and props, as the collection also features screen worn costumes by Superman actors Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher… READ MORE
May 8th, 2007 | Posted in General
Michael Emerson as Ben Linus, or as Sawyer calls him: “That Bug-eyed Bastard!” This article from yesterday details the final schedule for ABC’s “Lost”. The “100 episode” and “5 season” run has been mentioned several times, but now they seem to have set an exact timeline for the life of the show: 48 more episodes that will span three seasons of 16 uninterrupted shows. I would have preferred two more seasons with 22 episodes each, the first and last episodes each season being two hour specials for a total of 48 hours, but this is tolerable. When LOST came back on the air after that… READ MORE
May 7th, 2007 | Posted in General
For the last few years cartoonists attempted to make May 5th “National Cartoonist’s Day“, mainly by asking syndicated strip cartoonists to mention it in their May 5th strips. There wasn’t much else to it, really. It was supposed to be meant as a way to make people aware of cartooning as a profession, but I still haven’t quite figured out how a self proclaimed holiday would do that. This year I heard nothing about “National Cartoonists Day” in the funnies, so I don’t know if that idea is ag oner or just on hiatus. May 5th was a bigger deal this year in that it… READ MORE
