Tom's Mad Blog
March 1st, 2007 | Posted in General
I read this CNN article yesterday which talks about the changing of a TV show’s direction of focus to try and “fix” it with respect to ratings and viewership. They talk about several shows that are getting that kind of makeover to try and salvage their ratings. In passing they mention that LOST has seen a dramtic drop in ratings since coming back on the air compared to last season and last fall’s ratings. The article quotes a veteran TV producer saying ABC needs to add a stronger lead in show for LOST and concentrate on lead character storylines. Another TV expert feels LOST is… READ MORE
March 1st, 2007 | Posted in News
Back before I got my first assignment for MAD I did a few jobs for longtime MAD knockoff Cracked Magazine, as I recounted a bit in this blog post. Over a year ago the rights to Cracked were bought by a group of investors, and there ensued a total makeover by a newly assembled team of contributors (several from the Harvard Lampoon) that lead to the debut of the new Cracked in August of 2006. Looks like Cracked Magazine‘s big comeback lasted a whole three issues. Read an open letter from Jay Pinkerton concerning Cracked’s ceasing publication (via theapiary.org) I didn’t care much one way… READ MORE
February 28th, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
I’m in the final stretch of the two MAD KIDS illustration jobs for issue 7, done with the finals for the Nader job and still haven’t started the National Cartoonists Society illustration… that’s for this weekend. I also finished the poster job I posted the pencil sketch for a few days ago while waiting on some approvals and revision approvals from the folks at MAD. Here’s some stages of an area of that image: A close up of the sketch for one of the figures… The inks… The backgrounds in color, used a noise filter for the concrete… The base color for the figure, on… READ MORE
February 27th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I came across these animated shorts of Don Martin’s cartoons on YouTube: I believe they were done by German film producer Hahn Film, and may have been part of a 30 minute TV special called “Don Martin Does It Again”, presumably for German TV. They are definitely in German and not the ones that reportedly appeared on early episodes of MAD TV. As animation goes these are pretty crude and the funky sharpness of Martin’s art is lost in the process. The best one is the last one entitled “Frog”, which is a gag straight from the pages of MAD. Speaking of MAD TV specials… READ MORE
February 26th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine
MAD and Running Press are going to be releasing the first of a series of complete collections entitled “MAD’s Greatest Artists”, where they presumably collect all the art of each featured artist that appeared in the magazine. The first volume is called MAD’s Greatest Artists: The Completely MAD Don Martin. The article linked above comes from Scoop, a website for news about collectibles, does not go into too many details other than to say it will be a two-volume slip-cased special edition and will include every single work Martin created for the magazine, weighing in at over 1000 pages and 17 pounds. The edition also… READ MORE
February 25th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What TV parodies have you done? A: Since last week’s question was about movie parodies, I expected this one would be next. Thanks, for the question, Ike! Again, I did do one TV parody in Cracked, which I will include in the list: Cracked- The Stupranos (The Sopranos)- I wrote this one with help from cartoonist friend Jim Batts MAD- #403- (Mar 01)- “Malcontent in the Muddle” (Malcolm in the Middle) #413- (Jan 02)- “Boston Pubic” (Boston Public) #414 (Feb 02)- “America’s Most Wonton” (America’s Most Wanted) #426 (Feb 03)- “Shlubs” (Scrubs) #435 (Nov 03) “Trashing Places” (Trading Spaces) #442 (June 04) “The O.D.”… READ MORE
February 24th, 2007 | Posted in General
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February 23rd, 2007 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Lots of projects on the board right now but many are of the kind I cannot show sketches or finals of until publication. Workplace Poster– Another one of these jobs… this one is a fun one showing a frazzled woman running for her sanity from family and a co-worker all wanting her attention orhelp. I have to remember to add her lost shoe behind her… Revisions for Nader Museum Job– These are finally being reviewed. I had to alter the composition of one panel and change the private detective from being “too thugish” in several others. Here’s an image of the “before” and one with… READ MORE
