Tom's Mad Blog
July 18th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Now that the pencils are finished, it’s time for the inking. This has always been the toughest part for me. I??ᬨ‚Ć don’t know too many comic artists who ever feel their inked work is as effective as their pencils are, and you can count me among them. No matter how much I’ve done it, I always begin an inking job with trepidation and a certain amount of nervousness. Over the years I’ve learned to trust myself a bit more, but I still wouldn’t say it’s easy. To get started, I take out a #3 (.80) Rapidiograph pen and rule the balloons and tails, bleed and… READ MORE
July 17th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Once the pencil roughs are approved with the gang at MAD, I can move on to the final pencils. This is the stage where most of the hard work occurs. The first thing I do is transfer the roughs on to the final boards. I do this by blowing up my scans of the roughs to 200% of original size, and then printing them off on 11×17 paper. In the case of a splash, I have to use the 13×19 paper and print the image in quarters, then trim and tape them together. With the story pages, a typical row of panels fits an 11×17… READ MORE
July 16th, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Can you do a caricature of (me, my mom, my friends, etc.) for their (birthday, wedding, anniversary, etc.) and how much would you charge? A: I really hate my answer to this frequent question, but realistically I have no other answer to give. No, I am very sorry to all who inquire,??ᬨ‚Ćbut I had to stop doing personal commissions a long time ago. Due to a plain old lack of physical time I have to often turn down very high paying freelance publication or advertising jobs. If I accepted personal commissions, I would have to turn down even more of the freelance work. For… READ MORE
July 16th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The next step in a MAD job is the package I get from the art department. In it is a copy of the script, printouts of the layouts and the reference materials they have gathered and the boards. The boards large pieces of Strathmore bristol with all the pages, panel borders and text boxes drawn in pencil. These are usually done by longtime MAD production guru Lenny “The Beard” Brenner. The boards are drawn at 200% of print size, so a full page is 16.25 x 21 trim size. That is big, being that comics are usually drawn at 150% of print size, but who… READ MORE
July 15th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Whenever I meet someone who knows that I do work for MAD, I invariably get asked two questions. The first one is “Do they still publish that rag?”. The second is “How do you do the movie/TV parodies?”. Actually that question is usually phrased as a series of questions including “do you get to see the movie ahead of time?”, “does MAD provide you with pictures/copies of the film?”, “do you write the gags?”, and my personal favorite: “can you tell me where the bathroom is?” Over the next few days I will go through the process of doing a job for MAD from beginning… READ MORE
July 14th, 2006 | Posted in General
Back in 1997 I was introduced via an on-line mail list (sort of a first generation message forum) for caricaturists to an organization called the National Caricaturist Network (aka the NCN). The NCN in those days was a loose-knit trade association consisting of about 200-250 professional caricaturists from all around the United States. To become a member you had to demonstrate you were a professional caricaturist, either of the party/gig or theme park ilk, and of course pay your dues which I think were all of $40.00 a year. Members received their quarterly newsletter, “Exaggerated Features“, which was a tabloid sized, 20 plus page publication… READ MORE
July 14th, 2006 | Posted in General
I don’t usually post a lot of links to other blogs and websites, so when??ᬨ‚ĆI do it’s because I really think the content is worth checking out. Of course the links on my blogroll on the right are always worth checking out, but I have two that I recently visited that are worth a look-see.??ᬨ‚Ć First, If you are a comic book fan, Comics101.com is a great site full of pop culture and comics related writings, articles and blogs. Check out the “Special Guest Lecturer” section where there are a lot of fun articles on comics in general. A good friend of mine and a… READ MORE
July 13th, 2006 | Posted in General
Last night I went to see “Superman Returns” again with a good friend, this time at the local Imax, where 20 minutes of the footage was in 3-D. First off, I have mixed feelings about the 3-D moments in the film. In some respects the depth of field made the 3-D scenes even more dynamic. The plane crash scene was especially cool in 3-D, as were parts of the half-ship rescue. Maybe it was just me, but the scenes seemed darker, and the focus was fuzzy enough to make the action harder to follow. Those are probably necessary evils with the technology, but I still… READ MORE
