Tom's Mad Blog
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
April 20th, 2007 | Posted in General
A spot for Fade In Magazine from a few years ago… “The Hobbit“ and “The Lord of the Rings“ author J.R.R. Tolkien is even slower than Thomas Harris is at getting new novels in publication, but he has a pretty good excuse… He’s dead. Has been since 1973. That didn’t stop him posthumously publishing “The Silmarillion” in 1977, as well as several other books like 1980’s “Unfinished Tales“, and now he has a new book coming out on Tuesday, April 24th. Entitled “The Children of H??⬨?rin“, the novel was put together by Tolkien’s son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien from pieces of manuscripts and story… READ MORE
April 19th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
This just got sent to me today and will probably be available to download soon from MAD‘s official website: The MAD guys put these things together as exclusive content for their website now and again, which is something great to see. Many of them make the rounds on the internet on message boards and joke e-mails. Here’s two that are on the MAD website right now: They had one a year or two ago that was a parody of one of the recent Star Wars film posters that was pretty clever, but that one seems to be gone from the site. I’d like to see… READ MORE
April 19th, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
I’m back from soggy New England and the drawing board is getting stacked up… MAD movie parody- I can’t divulge any details but it’s sure to be a big blockbuster film and it’s longer than recent parodies have been at seven pages. This will be one of those parodies done in advance of the movie’s release, but as it’s a sequel that isn’t so bad. No more hints! The job also has a nice, long deadline for the end of May, so I won’t have to rush it. It’s been a full year since my last movie parody (Superman Returns) so I am looking forward… READ MORE
