Tom's Mad Blog
April 28th, 2007 | Posted in General
For the second time in as many weeks, I’m currently away from the studio visiting my theme park operation at Six Flags New England. Each year the spring is a hectic time for me. In addition to my usual freelance jobs and business work, it’s opening time for my caricature/art concessions in the seasonal parks. Our operations here in Massachusetts opened on April 15th, Six Flags St. Louis opened on April 21st and Valleyfair! in Minnesota opens May 12th. There is a lot to do, settijng up displays, hauling out the equipment, cleaning it and getting it set up, replacing the things that are breaking… READ MORE
April 27th, 2007 | Posted in General
A quick sketch study of super-villian Sylar I finally got the chance to see the new episode of “Heroes” the other night, in glorious HD. It was a long wait for a new episode, but as I expected it was worth it. SPOILERS AHEAD! It was no surprise this series picked right back up where it left off. One of the brilliant things about this show is how effortlessly it jumps from sub-plot to sub-plot, and maintains both interest and development in almost all of them. The Nikki/Jessica storyline seemed to me to be the least engaging before the break (save maybe the Hiro one,… READ MORE
April 26th, 2007 | Posted in General
The “Dark Tower” comic book series from Marvel, based on the Stephen King novels, is now on it’s third issue. I wrote reviews of the first two here and here, and while I liked some aspects of the comics and approach, I knew I had to give the series a few issues to gel and try and find it’s footing before really deciding on my opinions of it as a whole. This will be my last review of any of the series, at least until it takes a different creative and/or editorial approach than it’s current format. I guess that bodes ill for my opinions… READ MORE
April 25th, 2007 | Posted in General
Yesterday I wrote about the new issue of GAG! Magazine and recommended visiting it’s website. Sadly, upon visiting said site and reading around a bit I saw the inevitable comparison of GAG! to MAD. That always made me angry with the old Cracked, when Dick Kulpa and Co. always had to compare their publication to MAD, of course always proclaiming they were better. Barry suffers from the same delusions apparently, where he says : “GAG! is funnier than MAD, that is for sure. MAD reached its peak in the late 1960s/early 70s, and has been losing readers ever since.” That first comment is just natural… READ MORE
April 24th, 2007 | Posted in General
Back when I was briefly working for Cracked I did the artwork on a few parodies written by Barry Dutter. I enjoyed Barry’s writing and thought he came up with some pretty good gags and observations on the films. Cracked was doomed and did not run for very long under the Dick Kulpa era for several reasons, many of which I examined here. Barry left the magazine and started his own publication called GAG! with issue # 1 coming out in 2004. He just published his second issue… er… actually it’s another #1…. here in 2007. Barry and I still keep in contact a little,… READ MORE
April 23rd, 2007 | Posted in General
I’m about to get very busy again for some time, so don’t be surprised if the Dreaded Deadline Demon rears his ugly head around here in the near future. In the meantime, although I’m not usually big on posting YouTube videos unless they are cartoon or caricature related, the following one my kids played this one for me is a total riot. If you are familiar with “street magician” David Blaine you will get a real kick out of this very clever and well staged parody of his act. You have to love how the guy playing Blaine apes how he turns to stare at… READ MORE
April 22nd, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What do you consider a good caricature? I’ve seen plenty of published caricatures that look nothing like their supposed persons, is there a point where you can go too far with a caricature or not exaggerate enough? A: I consider a good caricature to have an unmistakable likeness and yet have both humor and exaggeration with the features. Some artists push the exaggeration too much and lose the likeness, which makes it an unsuccessful caricature. Some caricatures are little more than portraits with bigger heads and cartoonish bodies, and while the likenesses might be unmistakable with them they don’t have that humor that makes… READ MORE
April 21st, 2007 | Posted in Freelancing
I was thinking the other day about how much the internet has changed the dynamics of freelancing, in terms of how illustrators communicate, conduct and deliver jobs and market their work. For the most part it’s been an invaluable tool, but there is a dark side to it. The easy access and instant communication of the internet often leads to being contacted for jobs that aren’t really jobs. I used to have the same problem when I drew at the theme parks. A few times each summer someone would approach me at the park and ask me to draw something for them that was obviously… READ MORE
