Tom's Mad Blog
September 19th, 2006 | Posted in News
Back in July I wrote this post about the “Orphan Works Act” that most illustrators, photographers and creators of intellectual property are rightfully up in arms about. Briefly it is legislation that will allow the free use of intellectual property like illustrations, pictures, writing and other examples to anyone who can demonstrate they made a “reasonably diligent effort” to find the owner of said works. “Reasonably diligent effort” is not specifically defined, and this law would not only open wide the free use of intellectual property but language in it would severely restrict the ability of the copyright holders of any work wrongly used to… READ MORE
September 18th, 2006 | Posted in General
The National Caricaturist Network’s annual convention is fast approaching, Oct. 1st-5th at the Holiday Inn Hotel, International Drive, Orlando, FL. Usually taking place in January or February of each year, this year the NCN board decided to move the convention back about 8 months to have it in the fall of the year. As such, it’s been about 20 months since the last convention, and members are very excited about it finally coming around. I wrote this blog post about the NCN and my history with it back in July. I’ve been a member of the NCN since 1998, and it’s a fantastic organization of… READ MORE
September 17th, 2006 | Posted in General
After a number of e-mails looking for a way to purchase a Minnesota Twins Piranhas T-shirt from out of state, I finally called a local Twin’s Pro Shop to ask them if there was a way. Turns out there is. You can call the Pro Shop directly, buy one via a credit card and they will ship it to you. All the shirts are ash gray in color with the big design on the back and small one in the front. They have the following sizes: Adult sizes Med to XXL- $20.00 each Youth sizes Sm to XL- $16.00 each Shipping charges are extra, and… READ MORE
September 17th, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Where do you get your references for doing caricatures? A: Several sources. I have an old fashioned “morgue file” at home. A morgue file is a file cabinet full of reference pictures filed and cross-referenced. I keep alphabetical files by last name with clipped photos of celebrities from entertainment magazines, cross-referenced (sort of) by movie or TV show. I’m not too good at clipping and filing, though, so that is not a very good source for me. Another reason my morgue file doesn’t get added too very often is that my oldest daughter, Elizabeth, is autistic. One of the obsessive/compulsive things she does is… READ MORE
September 16th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As I have mentioned here many times I don’t watch much TV. No time for it, really. Probably a bad thing for someone who has a job doing a lot of parodies of TV shows… but that’s just the way it is. “LOST” is the only show I will try and catch at airtime, although I do sometimes watch “Medium” and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” when it’s TIVOed… except both shows lost me last season. So, when I get assigned a show I have to research it by either hopefully catching some reruns, setting the TIVO for new episodes and/or quizzing any friends or… READ MORE
September 15th, 2006 | Posted in General
In early 2002 I attended the annual NCS Reuben awards which were held that year at the Fiesta American Grand Coral Beach, Cancun, Mexico. It was a great weekend where Anna and I spent a lot of time on the beach and in the pool relaxing. Upon returning home and getting our pictures developed, I was surprised to find a middle-aged, fat guy with my face in most of the pictures. At 36 I had no business having a big roll around my midsection and a gut hanging over my swimtrunks. It seemed a job that had me sitting on my ass all day long… READ MORE
September 14th, 2006 | Posted in General
I have received a number of e-mails from people who are wondering how they can order one of these T-Shirts. Right now there is no way to do it other than a walk-up sale at the Twin’s ballpark or one of the Minnesota Proshops. On-line sales are the right of Major League Baseball and they will need to decide to add the items to the official Twin’s MLB on-line store. There is a possibility this will happen, but no guarantees. The Twin’s have promised to tell me when and if the shirts go on-line, and I will post that info when I get it. Three… READ MORE
September 14th, 2006 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
My wife Anna just returned last night from a girl’s trip to the wine country in northern California, and in her absence I was trying to do both our jobs. I draw,??ᬨ‚Ć she does everything else. On the whole drawing is less complicated and the chair is more comfortable. Sadly the result of her trip is that I did about half a job on both sides of the equation, meaning I did not get all my drawing done nor did I get all the socks washed (okay, ANY of the socks washed). So, things have piled up in the studio. Here’s what I’ve got going:… READ MORE
