Tom's Mad Blog
November 27th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
MAD has had several different website designs and redesigns over the last five or so years. They’ve done numerous things, like try and make it an extension of the magazine with original content updated weekly. As I wrote in the mailbag yesterday, I happened along at the time they were first attempting this, and it led to my getting some assignments that were not for print but for the website. They actually had a separate editor that was handling the content, which generally involved a list or short article and some kind of image. Sometimes it was just a static article, but usually it involved… READ MORE
November 26th, 2006 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Another Heroes cast member, Hayden Panettiere: Save the Cheerleader, Save the World! READ MORE
November 26th, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When did you start drawing for MAD, and what was your first article? A: That’s somewhat of a complicated question because the first thing I ever drew for MAD was actually the sixth piece I had printed, my first ‘published’ job was not for the magazine but for their website, and the first actual assignment I got printed was given to me three months after that first piece was done. Unofficially my first assignment was a job called “MAD’s Cable TV Viewing Odds” in June of 2000. I say “unofficially” because it was more of a tryout than a real job. I believe they… READ MORE
November 25th, 2006 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A quick figure study out of an old copy of Sports Illustrated For a while there I was getting a lot of the sports related artwork in MAD, and I did a lot of sports art for various other clients like the Minnesota Twins, the San Fransisco Giants and a few others. I haven’t done much of that lately. Personally I think drawing athletes in action is better done from memory than from photo reference. At the very least you have to simplify the figure and boil down the action to more archtypical poses. Fast shutter pictures capture weird folds and awkward moments in movement.… READ MORE
November 25th, 2006 | Posted in It's All Geek to Me!
I’m getting imaptient and just might take the plunge in December and get a high definition DVD player for the home theater. I’ve been waiting for prices to come down, second generation hardware to come out (less bugs) and more importantly to get a grasp of who is going to win the format war. For those who aren’t AV geeks out in cyberspace, there is currently a format war raging with respect to the next generation of DVDs: high definition DVDs. Most people have heard of “high definition” TV, which is broadcast via special antennas and on cable/satellite systems. Regular TV resolution is 640 x… READ MORE
November 24th, 2006 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s today’s sketch, celebrity nutcase Tom Cruise: The tabloids, magazines and press love to jump all over people like Cruise, who seem to take themselves way too seriously and offer up their opinions on anything and everything as if they don’t make their living pretending to be other people in front of a camera but are instead expert psychologists, politicians or what have you. People have been ridiculing Cruise (perhaps justly) for months and his career has even suffered as a result. However can we really blame actors like Cruise for thinking they are more important than the rest of us? Who’s really to blame?… READ MORE
November 24th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I haven’t done one of these in a while, so here is another piece hanging on my Wall of Shame. For those who aren’t familiar with it, I have an area outside my studio where I hang framed prints of some of my MAD splash pages that have been signed by some of the subjects depicted in them. They all have a story. I previously recounted the stories of how I got the ones of the Sopranos, Two and a Half Men and of Lost. The piece for today’s Wall of Shame was for the parody of the TV show The O.C.. Unlike the previous… READ MORE
November 23rd, 2006 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Happy Thanksgiving! Of course Opsman probably doesn’t think this looks anything like a turkey…. READ MORE
