Mailbag
June 19th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I read on your blog that you just became the president of the National Cartoonists Society. What is the National Cartoonists Society? Assuming it’s a group of cartoonists, how do I join up? A: The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists. It got its start back in the early 1940’s, when several cartoonists did a series of “chalk talks” for service men and women during World War II. In 1946, the NCS was officially formed at a dinner event, with Rube Goldberg as its first president, Russell Patterson as vice president, C.D. Russell as secretary and Milton Caniff as treasurer.… READ MORE
June 12th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Is drawing/painting on an iPad anything like drawing on a Cintiq (other than screen size)?¬¨‚Ć I’m weighing my options, as a Cintiq is clearly more expensive than an iPad, but I don’t want to be frustrated by going the cheaper route. A: There is no comparison. The Wacom Cintiq or any pressure-sensitive tablet or tablet-style computer is FAR more capable for drawing and painting digitally than an iPad. The drawing capabilities of the iPad or similar devices (for simplicity’s sake, I’ll use the term “iPad” to mean all such tablet devices) are distant secondary thoughts to the functionality of their multi-touch screens. iPads have… READ MORE
June 5th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I noticed on MAD‘s website they mention that they don’t want any one submitting ideas to send in movie/TV parodies. I can fully understand this, but I was wondering how does someone eventually break through and get to cover these things? Your second published article in MAD was a TV parody. For writers, do they use the same again and again? A: I’m not a part of MAD‘s editorial staff, so all I can tell you is my personal experience and how I understand it usually works. You have to work your way up to doing things like the movie and TV parodies in… READ MORE
May 30th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Tom, have you ever drawn any cartoons in a style other than the caricature style you do for ” MAD?” Do you have a “History and Development of Tom Richmond’s Drawing Style?” A: I guess that depends on how you define “style”. One way to define style would be the technique or medium being used on a given piece of art. In that respect, I do have a few different styles I work in. There’s my line and color style that is what I principally use for my work in MAD: Then I have the colored line style, which had a softer and more… READ MORE
May 22nd, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: In the illustrations requiring text, such as background signs, posters and the like, do you illustrate them free-hand or use the computer? A: That depends on what feel or context I am looking for. In cartooning, no matter how “hand drawn” a particular computer font might look, it still lacks the warmth and truly hand-drawn charm of lettering done by the artist. If I want that sort of feel, I will do the lettering by hand. For example, I do basically all the “sound effects” lettering in my MAD jobs by hand: A panel from MAD #492’s Ironic Man parody with hand lettering More… READ MORE
May 15th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have a question about Caricatures, especially doing live caricature work.¬¨‚Ć I have watched videos on YouTube and have seen different artists using different tools.¬¨‚Ć I don’t know if this subject has came up before or not, but I was wondering if you could tell me anything about what kind of markers, brushes, etc. are used in live caricature work? A: Yes, this question does come up often…so I post the answer every year or so for the benefit of new readers. There is no “standard” drawing and coloring tools used by live caricaturists. Many use markers for the linework, for which the Dixon… READ MORE
May 8th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’m just curious and you may or may not be the man to ask but I’m going to anyway, how does MAD magazine get around copyright infringement when you guys do film parodies? I mean it’s a parody but there’s no question about which film the original is, do you ask for permission from the film studio? Has this ever come up I mean it is essentially using the likeness of celebrity figures and a bunch of copyrighted material to create those parodies and I’m just curious how you guys get around it. Or has it ever even come up? A: Satire and parody… READ MORE
April 30th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Here’s an obscure question about your history with MAD Magazine: What was your longest run of appearing in consecutive issues? A. I had to look that one up. I am terrible at remembering things like issue numbers or what I did for what issue. To combat this, I keep a list that I simply add to the bottom of with each new MAD job. Prior to the magazine going quarterly, the longest number of issues I had consecutive appearances in was 11, starting with “MAD‘s Exclusive Backstage Tour of The Family Guy” in MAD # 458 (Oct. 2005), and ending with “Stuporman Reruns!” in… READ MORE
