Archive for July 29th, 2013
July 29th, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
I can finally share a sneak peek of “The Slobbit” from MAD #522. The above splash is not the actual splash from the magazine but my art with the layout text boxes and copy pasted in… the guys at MAD were too busy producing a magazine to get me a JPEG of the final pages. Due to the odd nature of the splash with the map and overlaying insets I didn’t do the inked text boxes, but rather assembled the whole thing digitally and submitted “full art” as they call it. MAD did the text boxes on the final, although I did it the usual… READ MORE
April 29th, 2013 | Posted in Monday MADness
I occasionally get the question “What was the first piece you ever did for MAD“? which is not an easy one to answer. The full story is here, but the quick answer is a feature piece called “MAD‘s Cable TV Viewing Odds”, which I was assigned in June of 2000 but did not actually see print until MAD #406, June 2001. In between my doing that job and it seeing print I did several pieces for the MAD website and five jobs for the magazine including my first two TV/movie parodies. I recently ran across a dusty DVD with some old jobs archived, including that… READ MORE
March 29th, 2013 | Posted in General
Every once and awhile I get something like this in my inbox that really makes me smile: Tom, I’ve read EVERY book that was ever written on caricatures and at best I never considered myself anything more than an amateur caricaturist. After reading, then studying your book, I am now working the beach in Ft Lauderdale daily.Thanks to you I am now a professional caricaturist. You made a lifelong dream come true, and for that I thank you. Sincerely, Tim Timothy Wittneben Deerfield Beach, FL. That is perhaps the highest compliment anyone who has written a “how to” book of any kind can get. You… READ MORE
January 29th, 2013 | Posted in General
Only 10 days to go in the Kickstarter campaign to fund this sure-to-be-great documentary about MAD Magazine and it’s 60 plus years of holding a funhouse mirror to the world in general, and influencing generations of humorists in the process. They are woefully short of the $50,000 goal. They need a flurry of activity and a few big sponsors to step up, but they could also use a lot of little sponsors as well. $25 will get you a DVD of the final documentary (updated from the download they previously offered at that level). If enough people do that, they’ll meet their goal. So many… READ MORE
November 29th, 2012 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
The last month of the year is usually a quiet one for the freelance biz. Magazines and publications have often blown their budget for illustration for the year by the end of November. Their “end of the year” issues that come out on the stands in December are often bigger and more costly to produce, and were done back in October or in early November. Thus, around the holidays it is usually a bit slow. Here’s what I have on the board right now- Penthouse Spot Illustration– The last of a series of caricatures of Dave Navarro for a column he is doing in the… READ MORE
October 29th, 2012 | Posted in News
Announcing the availability of a Limited Artist’s Edition of my book, The Mad Art of Caricature! A Serious Guide to drawing Funny Faces, just in time for the holidays! This Limited Artist’s Edition will be limited to 120 editions, and will feature the following: A handsome, hand-numbered bookplate on the inside front cover (see above)! signed (and personalized as directed by you) by the author (me)! a pen and ink caricature of YOU or the PERSON OF YOUR CHOICE, drawn by the author (again, me) from photos you send me! Here’s an example: You send me your photos I draw you on the half title… READ MORE
August 29th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
As I posted on Monday, I am out of the country right now to parts undisclosed on a USO trip with a bunch of other cartoonists, drawing drawings and shaking hands with our service men and women serving overseas in the active war zone. Thus, this week’s sketch is a pencil rough of an illustration I am doing for a client. Clicky to embiggen. Will post final art down the road sometime. READ MORE
July 29th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Q: When doing your movie and TV parodies, and occasional other stuff for MAD, how closely do you work with the writers on a given piece? A: This question was actually put to me at the MAD panel at Comic-Con, and I thought it would be a good one to answer here in the Sunday Mailbag. The answer is: I don’t directly work with the writers at all, ever. Any questions or concerns I have with the script I take to MAD art director Sam Viviano, who will go to the writer if it’s something he cannot answer and then relay the response to me.… READ MORE
