Tom's Mad Blog
February 13th, 2022 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What size do you work at for your MAD pages? There’s so much detail… I imagine you work much larger than the printed page size. A: Much bigger. Twice the size, in fact. Typically comic book artists work on 11 inch x 17 inch art boards with a “live” art area of about 10 x 15. With a comic book page print size of around 6.625 x 10.125 inches, most original art is done at about 148% enlargement, meaning the artist is working at a size about 148% bigger than what the art will print at. My MAD pages are done at 200% of print size,… READ MORE
February 9th, 2022 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
This week’s subject is recently deceased rock star Michael Lee Aday AKA Meat Loaf. Meat Loaf wasn’t just known for his music and acting… he’ll also go down in history for recording one of the longest and most overperformed karaoke songs of all time, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”! Speaking of that song, I didn’t know until recently that the famous live video performance that was so ubiquitous on MTV back when MTV actually played music videos did not feature the woman who dueted with Meat Loaf on that song on the album “Bat Out of Hell”. That original performer was Ellen Foley. Foley was unable to tour… READ MORE
February 7th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
What embodies America’s obsession over professional sports more than this Sunday’s ultimate sports spectacle, the Super Bowl? Why, a bunch of former athletes, comedians, and talking heads sitting around on camera talking about sports, that’s what! In MAD #475, March 2007, I did the art for another installment of “MAD Deconstructs TV Talk Shows”, this time roasting “The Best damn Sports Show Period”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin! This is another MAD job where most of my pencils and other process stuff have mysteriously disappeared, so I have almost none of that to share. I do remember two things about this job, however.… READ MORE
February 4th, 2022 | Posted in Freelancing
It’s been a while but I did the art for a new piece in the latest issue of the long running U.K. humor comic Viz!, but I have one in a recent issue. The feature is a mashup of the TV show “Mad Men” and the film series “Mad Max”. I love doing these features for Viz, few and far between as they are. They are challenging because the panels are REALLY SMALL, having to cram 15 or so panels per page with room for all the word balloons. Working small really forces me to think about how I am using solid black areas and to… READ MORE
February 2nd, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s sketch is another in my “Classic Rock” series. Here’s my take on Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison! Morrison’s look has changed so much from the 60’s to today, it was tough to decide what era to draw him from. I chose the 70’s, when he really established himself as a major star. Frankly I’m not sure I couldn’t pass this one off as Ludwig Van Beethoven if I just lost the mic. Maybe it’s just the crazy hair and ascot. They do both have “Van” in their names. . .coincidence? READ MORE
January 31st, 2022 | Posted in News
Here is a cool job I did earlier this month that I can finally talk about. I did the art for the release of a new single by the Grammy award winning band “Portugal. The Man.” Here’s their official release image: I did the center sunflower with the mosh pit center. The design folks did the type and added the sky background. Art for a major label/band is a first for me! READ MORE
January 31st, 2022 | Posted in News
This past fall I took over as president of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the National Cartoonists Society proper. Among some of the initiatives we have in the works is a monthly live drawing event team-up with the folks at 4C Comics Live. 4C Comics has a YouTube channel where they conduct live drawing sessions with comic book artists sort of like a virtual comic con. Participants put in “claims” to request and pay for a drawing which the artist usually does right there on camera. Members of the NCF will be doing a live drawing event with 4C Comics every month and 100%… READ MORE
January 31st, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Get ready for the fallout because it’s time to launch another episode of our nuclear-powered trip through my work at MAD Magazine! This piece is a megaton-o-fun from MAD’s “20 Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2006” from MAD #473, Jan 2007. I think the theme and message is self explanatory. There is no writer credit so this was one of the MAD 20 pieces that was written by the MAD staff. This was another try at a fully digital piece, and I liked the results with this one a lot better than the “religious Video Games” one I had done a few issues ago.… READ MORE
