Tom's Mad Blog
March 25th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Aren’t you worried about getting sued by a celebrity for selling their caricature? Isn’t their image copyrighted somehow? A: No, I am not worried about it for many reasons. First off, I don’t sell their caricatures. I draw caricatures for publications like magazines, books and newspapers. Neither I nor they can be sued by a celebrity for using their likeness to accompany a story or article, because that’s what freedom of the press is. Magazines use photos and illustrations of celebrities all the time and the only way they can be sued if is the article that they are illustrating knowingly lies about the… READ MORE
March 24th, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Getting very busy again, and right now I am in Massachusetts for some prep work and interviewing for our art concessions at Six Flags New England. Self Caricature– I finally finished this new self caricature the other day, as I had grown to hate the other ones I’ve been using: Would you trust this man? I had a few purposes in mind for this. First the practical, which is to use it for a postcard I’ll be sending out after completing a job for a client as a “thank you/hope to work with you again” mailer. Second, I occasionally get asked for a self-image for… READ MORE
March 23rd, 2007 | Posted in News
NCS President Rick Stromoski released the names of the Reuben Award nominees for 2007 on Thursday. They are as follows: REUBEN AWARD for Cartoonist of the Year Bill Amend Dave Coverly Dan Piraro REUBEN DIVISION AWARDS – NOMINEES (listed alphabetically) Feature Animation Peter De Seve, Character Design (Fox) “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown” Carter Goodrich, Character Design (Sony) “Open Season” Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick, Directors (Dreamworks) “Over The Hedge” Magazine Feature/Magazine Illustration Steve Brodner Tom Richmond Jean-Jacques Sempe Comic Book Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi Newspaper Illustration Sean Kelly Robert… READ MORE
March 22nd, 2007 | Posted in General
What fictional character has been portrayed most often in film? Tarzan? James Bond? Adam Sandler? Sherlock Holmes, the great 18th century fictional detective holds that title by a landslide. More than 75 different actors have portrayed Holmes, in well over 200 movies. Holmes was the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an author of novels, short stories and poetry from Scotland. Born in 1859, Conan Doyle led a very interesting life. He was many things including a student of medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where some of his fellow classmates included Robert Louis Stevenson and James Barrie. He served as a ship’s physician on… READ MORE
March 21st, 2007 | Posted in News
Artwork for the 2007 Reuben Speakers T-shirt. From left: Bud Grace, Sam Gross, Mort Walker and Jerry Van Amerongen. Click image for a closer look Every year the National Cartoonist Society hosts a gala wards weekend called the Reubens at some swanky hotel. I’ve been a member since 1999, and have attended Reuben Weekends in San Antonio, New York City, Boca Raton, Cancun, San Francisco, Kansas City, Scottsdale and Chicago. This year’s awards will be held in Orlando, Florida on Memorial Day Weekend. Visit the NCS website for peeks at previous awards weekends. I wrote about last year’s Chicago experience here. These are a lot… READ MORE
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
