Tom's Mad Blog
March 20th, 2007 | Posted in General
“You just can’t trust hunchbacks!” Thursday night I went with some pals to see the movie “300”. I’d heard a lot of good and bad things about the film, but even it’s critics agreed it was visually stunning, so I knew I was in for some eye candy if nothing else. I’ve read several reviews where the political intentions of the film are questioned… in fact it’s a hot topic in middle eastern countries where it’s apparently widely believed to be US government propaganda to gear the US citizens up for war on Iran (modern Persia). The movie, in case you live under a rock,… READ MORE
March 19th, 2007 | Posted in General
I’m kind of busy right now so here are just a few links and thoughts about various relevant subjects from the news: King Features Syndicate Editor Drowns- It was a sad day in the cartooning world on April the 16th, when news of the death of King Features editor in chief Jay Kennedy began circulating. The report says he accidentally drowned while on vacation in Costa Rica on April 15th. Jay was the person who was instrumental in choosing what new submissions would be taken on by King, so hopeful cartoonists were as familiar with his name as pros in the business. I did not… READ MORE
March 18th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I assume you use photo references for your movie/TV parodies. Do you draw the character’s facial expressions from these or do you just ‘make them up’? I know this question may seem lame but everyone’s smile, frown etc is different and unique to them and caricaturing is as much about capturing a person’s personality as it is the drawn look. Do you find pictures of the expressions you’re after or do you just ‘wing it’? A: In many cases I ‘wing it’ as you called it. It would be impossible to assemble a collection of images of a person with all the various expressions… READ MORE
March 17th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It seems the guys at the “Best Damn Sports Show Period” have a sense of humor. They were quite proud on a recent show of their appearance in MAD # 475. They did a short segment on the parody, one of MAD’s series “MAD Deconstructs TV Talk Shows”. Host Chris Rose even read some excerpts complete with graphics of the panels blown up on the screen. No comments about my caricatures of the group, except for how long I drew Rodney Peete‘s tongue in the gag with Pam Anderson as the guest bimbo. Here are the panels they highlighted: Of course, I am not sure… READ MORE
March 16th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As promised here are some images from the parody of “Entourage”, entitled “Entergarbage” in this month’s issue of MAD: Initial pencils of a section of the splash Inks Final color Some individual panels… This was a fun one to do, as many of the faces were great to draw. Kevin Dillon‘s “Johnny Drama” was particularly fun. You may notice Britney Spears‘ face changed a lot from the pencil sketch to the inked version. This is an example where MAD asked for some changes. The editors felt I made Britney too hot, and they wanted me to make her look less attractive and more on the… READ MORE
March 15th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The latest issue of MAD is in comic shops this week, and on newsstands on Tuesday. It contains my parody of “Entourage”. I’ll post some sneak peeks of that parody, along with some of the pencils and such tomorrow. One noteworthy tidbit about this issue of MAD. According to Mike Slaubaugh and his MAD Lists website, this issue represents Sergio Aragones’ 400th appearance in the magazine. He has only missed one issue since his first appearance in MAD #76, over 40 years ago! Congratulations or sympathies to Sergio, depending on your point of view. According to Mike’s list, I’ve got only 342 more appearances to… READ MORE
March 14th, 2007 | Posted in News
Last year I received an e-mail from a design firm I did a 2004 cover job for, who told me a cover we had done won an award though neither she or I were notified. Today I found out a different cover illustration I did last year for Infoworld Magazine won a gold medal for best cover illustration of 2005 from TABPI (Trade Associations Business Publications International). This was the 2005 award winner (!!??) Don’t get me wrong, it’s very nice to be recognized but this isn’t a particularly great piece of art, so it’s being deserving of any award is a little questionable to… READ MORE
March 13th, 2007 | Posted in General
Comic Book Day this past weekend brought Number One Son Tommy and myself to our local comic book store and netted a few issues we enjoyed over lunch. I bought two Conan books that were not bad, but the only thing I could find I was very interested in was The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #2. I am a big fan of the Stephen King Dark Tower books, and the comics were something I looked forward to with some trepidation. I wrote a brief review of the first issue last month, where I basically said the jury was still out. I was much more… READ MORE
