Tom's Mad Blog
October 1st, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How long does it take to do a MAD movie/TV parody? A: As long as they give me. The process of doing a parody involves a lot of people, and it all depends on how fast the editors want it in the magazine as to how much time I end up getting for the art. I don’t know whether the editors assign a movie to a certain writer, or if writers suggest doing a movie and submit a rough draft or outline of the parody (I suspect it’s mostly the former these days), but either way first the script needs to be written. Then… READ MORE
September 30th, 2006 | Posted in General
You’ve seen me write in this space about the proposed legislation that would radically alter copyright law in a way that would be a disaster for creative professionals. Congress was scheduled to adjourn this session yesterday and it looks like the bill did not make it out of committee. That’s good. What’s bad is there are still some legislators set on getting this thing passed. I cannot see a single benefit for anyone except companies and publishers that formerly had to buy the rights to use illustrations, photos, books or other creative works and can now use them for free if they cannot find the… READ MORE
September 29th, 2006 | Posted in General
As I wrote last week, Saturday the 23rd was The Lovely Anna and my 18 year wedding anniversary. We had a lovely dinner in an excellent french restaurant in Minneapolis… it’s nice to be married to someone who’s company is still the best thing about any day. We exchanged gifts as well, of course. In the last 18 years, I’ve given her diamonds, furniture, collectors statues, trips and more diamonds… I try to spoil her. Still no matter what I come up with or how much it might cost I will never be able to top the present she got for me for our 10… READ MORE
September 28th, 2006 | Posted in General
As promised, here’s some of the final art for the parody of “Grey’s Anatomy” due in MAD #472. Except for the fact that it looks nothing like George, it turned out okay considering both the time squeeze and the computer crash. — — — Here’s the final of the “Christmas” workplace poster art, which I just finished this morning. Now I get to spend a few hours trying to rebuild my contact list and much of my data on the Mac Pro. You don’t really realize how much you depend on these boxes of circuits and wires until something like this happens. I keep thinking… READ MORE
September 27th, 2006 | Posted in General
Looks like my new Mac Pro is finally coming around. After two re-installs of OS X the firmware update that kept hanging and crashing the computer finally took. It is important to note I did nothing different on tries number one and two, which resulted in my DVD drive drawer popping open and the computer freezing, than I did on successful try number three. It’s a little scary that the AppleCare people just shrugged their shoulders and said “well, it’s working now, so… no problem”. Seems to me there is a problem when apparently dumb luck is the only discernible reason for the solution of… READ MORE
September 26th, 2006 | Posted in General
You knew it was coming….. READ MORE
September 25th, 2006 | Posted in General
Well, it finally happened. This morning I am coloring happily along in PhotoShop when the blue screen of death pops up on my PC monitor. For the most part Windows XP is a very stable OS and I sometimes go weeks without rebooting, but this one was bad. I instantly lost all the work I had been doing as the computer began dumping physical memory to reboot. Unfortunately it went downhill from there. Apparently my Dell workstation uses a hard drive configuration called “RAID”, which as I understand it is for drive mirroring and server/data security. I don’t need those things, but they came with… READ MORE
September 24th, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What materials do you use to do your live caricatures? A: I don’t do a lot of live caricature anymore, but when I do I’m still using the same basic materials I have for the last 20 plus years. Paper: I buy large quantities of paper for the theme park operations, so I use a special paper that is difficult to get in an art store. It’s an bristol vellum, bright white, 12 x 16 inches and 67 lb weight. That’s a good, heavyweight paper without being a cardstock. It is smoother on one side than the other, so I can use the rough… READ MORE
