Tom's Mad Blog
July 4th, 2006 | Posted in General
Freelance illustration is an interesting career. You never know where the next job might come from. In the last year I have done lots of the usual (magazine feature illustrations, posters), the unusual (caricatures used to make coffee mugs of sports celebrities for stadium giveaways) and the downright bizarre (cartoon designs for a series of toys featuring various characters in trench coats that open them up to “flash” you, showing various gag elements as opposed to their privates). Right now I am in the middle of a very unique job for The American Museum of Tort Law in Kansas City, MO. The museum has exhibits… READ MORE
July 3rd, 2006 | Posted in General
It’s been a month or so since the event, but I thought I’d give a belated report on this year’s Rueben Awards. I am fortunate to be a member of the National Cartoonist Society, a 60 year old, terrific organization of professional cartoonists. Each year they have a weekend event called the Reuben Awards, named after first president Rube Goldberg, which is described as the “Oscars” of cartooning. The Reubens are usually well attended and always a great deal of fun. It’s been held on Memorial Day weekend for the last several years, in different locals from NYC to Cancun, San Francisco to Boca Raton… READ MORE
July 2nd, 2006 | Posted in General
I’ve received a few e-mails already asking why I don’t have comments active on the blog on most posts. My reasoning was??ᬨ‚Ćthat I didn’t think I’d have the time to log in and moderate comments and respond to them, which I know I will feel obligated to do. I would much prefer that, if readers have questions or want to make a comment, they e-mail me and I can respond when I can. However it seems that people??ᬨ‚Ćsometimes just want to be made a part of the party, so to speak, and add their thoughts. So, I have turned on comments for the “Stuporman Sneak… READ MORE
July 2nd, 2006 | Posted in Mailbag
Welcome to the first installment of the “Mailbag” feature. Every Sunday I’ll try to answer some questions or respond to comments e-mailed to me. This is assuming of course I actually GET e-mails with questions or comments, and that a response would be of interest to more than the individual e-mailer. Some of the questions and answers may end up in the FAQ page linked in the upper left corner of the blog page. This one most definitely will, as I get it all the time: Q: I want to learn to draw caricatures. What should I do? A: Seek professional psychiatric help. If you… READ MORE
July 1st, 2006 | Posted in General
I mentioned a few days ago here that I have resisted blogging for a long time. There were several reasons for this, the chief of which was I didn’t want to do it just to have a place to toot my own horn or post my latest scribble looking for feedback. One of the biggest reasons I chose to give blogging a try was because of a blog that I frequent a lot called “News from Me” The author’s name is Mark Evanier, and he’s a tremendously talented and funny writer who’s credits are far too long to list here. He’s written for televison, comics,… READ MORE
June 29th, 2006 | Posted in General
I got my start as a professional artist drawing caricatures at a theme park near Chicago during the summers between college semesters. That is a hard and challenging thing to do, believe me. I eventually started my own caricature concession operations, and now have a few around the country, including here in Minnesota as well as Georgia, Missouri and Massachusetts. Live caricature is a unique art form. It involves both art and performance. The most successful excel at both, but one or the other will get you by. I learned to draw caricatures at the theme park, thanks to having the opportunity to draw and… READ MORE
June 28th, 2006 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The July issue of MAD will have a parody of the new Superman movie, written by Dick DeBartolo with art by me. Here are some images from the job to give you a little advance peek: Doing parodies in advance of the film’s release is not my favorite thing to do. I much prefer seeing the film first, as there is so much more to have fun with that way. Just working from a script and a few advance scenes, photos and trailers doesn’t give either myself or the writer the chance to lampoon the acting, pacing or so many of the elements that make… READ MORE
June 27th, 2006 | Posted in General
As any previous visitor can see, this new website is a complete reinvention from my previous site’s design. That site, may it rest in peace, was designed by me also and written in HTML by some web guys for very cheap back in 1995. Over the years I rewrote most of it, adding the JavaScript left menu and other things piecemeal until it was really hard to keep updated and was bloated with old, bad work from a long time ago. I got so sick of looking at it one day I realized nearly a year had gone by since last I updated it. I… READ MORE
