Tom's Mad Blog
August 9th, 2006 | Posted in News
A few weeks ago I wrote this post about the annual Walt Disney Toonfest in Marceline, MO and this year’s event. Since Marceline geographically falls within the my chapter of the National Cartoonist Society, the North Central Chapter, we are closely involved in Toonfest in general and their annual art show in particular. I received the following press release from former chapter officer Paul Fell, concerning this year’s art show. The show is very well done and any professional cartoonists who might be reading this should consider submitting work. Return shipping is paid by the Toonfest organizers so all you are out is the “to”… READ MORE
August 8th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It occurred to me I never posted much of a “sneak peek” at the upcoming Hell’s Kitchen MAD parody. I just used the image of Gordon Ramsey from the splash as part of my color mini-tutorial. Here’s a few more images from the parody, due out in September in MAD #470. Sorry, no words. That’s MAD’s job, and you’ll have to buy the furshlugginer magazine to get those! A section of the spash page… ??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć??ᬨ‚Ć READ MORE
August 7th, 2006 | Posted in General
Well, another day of live caricatures at Valleyfair. This time I fared a little better in the good drawing department. I did a few decent ones and was starting to the back into the swing of it. No more live work for me in the foreseeable future, as it’s back to a slowing mounting pile of freelance jobs on the drawing board. Here are a few of the ones that turned out reasonably well today, with comments: ??ᬨ‚Ć This is Tim Howe, one of my artists in Minnesota this summer. He came in to get a drawing by me since I never work anymore. I… READ MORE
August 6th, 2006 | Posted in General
Cartoons have always gotten a bit of a bad rap in the art world because of the perception that they are throw-away art… more about the gag and writing than about the artwork itself. Some cartoons are much more about the writing than the art, but what’s wrong with that? Good cartooning is delivering a message to the viewer, that may be in the form of a gag or some editorial comment or political statement… that can be accomplished with a beautifully complex drawing or with a simple scribble. It seems to me if the message is delivered and understood… mission accomplished. Cartoons might not… READ MORE
August 6th, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When are you going to post the MAD artwork you just finished in the MAD Art section? A: I always wait until the date that the issue of MAD the art appears in has hit the newsstand to post full images on my website. The MAD editors have never specifically said I couldn’t post the artwork early, but I don’t think they’d like it. Technically I don’t own the copyright to the artwork anyway, and am only allowed to post it insofar as there is an unwrtitten rule that we (the Usual Gang of Idiots) can use artwork we’ve done for MAD in self-promotion.… READ MORE
August 5th, 2006 | Posted in General
For the last two days since my return from NYC I’ve been working doing live caricatures at Valleyfair. It’s been a little slower than is usual this time of year… I blame the gas prices. At any rate, I didn’t really get a chance to get back in the groove of doing live work. That is something you have to warm up to and get back the “eye’ for doing quick draw, spontaneous caricatures. I have been spoiled by the luxury of working from clear photo images that don’t move, pick their noses or refuse to give you the same expression twice and the ability… READ MORE
August 4th, 2006 | Posted in General
Several blog readers have asked me why I don’t have an RSS syndication feed for my blog, to which my response was: “What the hell is an RSS syndication feed?” I’m new to this whole blog thing, you know. Thanks in particular to Roy Blumenthal for the handy link to more information he e-mailed me. It turns out an RSS feed is a web page, automatically generated by your better blog software, that is used by an RSS reader to create a sort of “blog watch” alert that will tell you when a blog has been updated, and give some info and an easy link… READ MORE
August 3rd, 2006 | Posted in General
Last Tuesday night Anna, myself and three of my kids attended the event we had come to New York for, “An evening with Harry, Carrie and Garp” at Radio City Music Hall. As I mentioned before, this was a charity event featuring readings by J.K. Rowling (Harry), Stephen King (Carrie) and John Irving (Garp), tickets for which was a Mother’s Day gift for Anna. King is among my favorite authors, Irving is Anna’s absolute favorite and we are all fans of Rowling, especially the kids. The show was quite good, and littered with surprise celebrity presentations and introductions. It began with an introduction by Whoopi… READ MORE
