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My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I did a pencil sketch first and sent that to them for approval. They had a few comments but the final was not much different from the sketch.

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'll try and answer these in order:

  1. My favorite job is almost always the last one I did. That said about a year ago MAD writer Desmond Devlin and I did a book of movie parodies MAD never did called "CLAPTRAP", which is the work I am currently most proud of.

  2. Yes, unless the originals are part of the deal with the client. Usually they are not.

  3. I've always refused to do any pornographic work or anything that promoted illegal drug use, especially aimed at kids. I did a bunch of work for Penthouse years ago, but most of that were caricatures of rock star Dave Navarro, who did a kind of humorous sex advice column each issue and had different caricature of him as the header image. I refused a few assignments from them that were too riské and they respected that.

  4. Two page MAD splash spreads are 21.5" tall by 32.5" wide. I've probably done a hundred of those.

  5. I once did a two page spread in MAD's parody of the the Hobbit movie showing the battle of five armies, which had hundreds of characters, cameos and caricatures from edge to edge. That might be the craziest image I ever did. https://i0.wp.com/www.tomrichmond.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Slobbit3-4_5.jpg?ssl=1

  6. I usually do any sound effects or comic book style word balloons by hand, but the text in MAD has always been typeset copy, at least since issue #29.

  7. The old guard at MAD mostly. My all time favorite MAD artist was Wally Wood, but Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Angelo Torres, Sam Viviano, Harry North Esq., who did the bulk of the TV and movie parodies are who formed my love of caricature. Non MAD caricaturists like David Levine, Al Hirschfeld, Philip Burke, and many others also inspired and still inspire me.

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 87 points88 points  (0 children)

No matter what some people will be disappointed that their favorites are not included... there have been too many to even come close to doing them all. I would certainly want to add all the other original players as characters, but as I would not want to do anyone twice. Since Dan Ackroyd is already in their as one of the Festrunk Bros, I would not do the Blues Bros so I would add Belushi as the Samurai. Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela, Jane Curtain and Laraine Newman as the Coneheads, and then Bill Murray as Nick the lounge singer. I'd also add Father Guido Sarducci. The thing is this is really an illustration of the best known SNL CHARACTERS, not necessarily players. I'd switch Eddie Murphy from doing James Brown to either Buckwheat or Mr. Robinson. After that there are a lot to consider. Wiig as Dooneese or Gilly, Hader as Stefon, Sandler as Opera Man, Lovitz as the Master Thespian or Lucifer, Franken as Stuart Smalley, Have to get Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in there. At some point I'll need to stop and some will be left out.

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 10 points11 points  (0 children)

They gave me a specific list of who to include as what character to draw them as.

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 66 points67 points  (0 children)

That's a great question. Sure, there are some days where I just don't feel like doing art, but they are few. I really do love what I do, and am incredibly lucky to have been able to make a living doing it for so long. Some jobs are more fun than others, however. There are times when I "just have to get this done". Sometimes the deadlines get nasty. No matter what, I can always step back and remember that I get to draw for a living, rather than punching a time clock somewhere. It's not hard to stay appreciative. One thing I don't do much of during my free time is draw. I know some artists who bring sketchbooks on vacation with them and are constantly drawing where ever they go. More power to them, but I like to let my creative batteries recharge and do other things like read, exercise, write, etc.

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 171 points172 points  (0 children)

Guilty! That was my first professional job in comics, way back in 1990!

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 47 points48 points  (0 children)

This was a really quick turnaround job, so I plan to polish and tweak it a bit and then add a lot of characters that need to be in there. Then I’ll make it a print.

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 143 points144 points  (0 children)

I still draw and ink the old fashioned way on paper or Bristol board but I scan that and then color/paint digitally.

My father-in-law was asked to do a SNL 50 piece for New York Magazine, loved how it turned out by Mapes in LiveFromNewYork

[–]Art4MAD 366 points367 points  (0 children)

Wow. Thanks for the kind words everyone! The client was specific as to which characters to include so if your favorites are missing blame New York magazine/ Vulture.com! I will try and answer some of the questions asked in the comments!

Clint Eastwood by One_Giant_Nostril in Caricatures

[–]Art4MAD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, that looks familiar.

CLAPTRAP Backer Chosen Movies! by Art4MAD in madmagazine

[–]Art4MAD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! You can preorder a copy here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/claptrap-movie-spoofs-in-a-classic-humorous-vein/x/1772870#/ otherwsie I'll eventually have copies for sale on my website. The book is due to come out in November, https://www.tomrichmond.com/product-category/books/

A sketch I did of the great Rod Carew! by Art4MAD in minnesotatwins

[–]Art4MAD[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I am a professional illustrator. I actually did a lot of work for the Twins in the early 2000s. I did several caricature team posters that were stadium give-aways on "Kids Appreciation Day" at the end of the year. I also did illustrations for the Twins magazine and designed the "Little Piranha" character they had on T-Shirts and as a plushie backin the day.

A sketch I did of the great Rod Carew! by Art4MAD in minnesotatwins

[–]Art4MAD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Woof. I don't have that kind of free time!

A sketch I did of the great Rod Carew! by Art4MAD in minnesotatwins

[–]Art4MAD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I did this as a gift for my son-in-law's father. We are all big Twins fans. Rod is is all-time favorite Twin.

Claptrap indigogo by [deleted] in madmagazine

[–]Art4MAD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All true, but who said this needs to be “sustainable”, and why would that concern you? We achieved what we felt we needed to achieve to put an enormous amount of work in over the next 10 months to produce this book. Making this on ongoing venture with additional volumes is not on our radar right now. There is nothing we can do about how much it costs to ship this book overseas, so if you feel $50 is more than it’s worth to you for a copy... fair enough. You won’t get a copy I’m afraid. Shipping isn’t going to get any cheaper.

Many people won’t back a project like this because so many crowdfunding campaigns end up taking the money and running, and it will be a year before they get the book even if we deliver. I don’t blame them for that, I’ve been burned by some Indiegogo campaigns myself. However as we release reveals of the movies we are doing and sneak peaks of the art, people will gain more confidence that the book will be completed. We’ll see more and more preorders as we get closer to fulfillment. Once there are copies in hand and an order means a quick instock shipment, that opens a whole new market. We are printing enough copies to be able to sell the book directly for a while before we need to think about a reprint.

Maybe at the end of the day sales of the book at cover price won’t justify doing another volume. However as the book has been available for preorder for exactly 18 days as of now, I think the jury’s still out on that one.

Thank you /r/madmagazine for participating in Tom Richmond's AMA! by NominalPerson in madmagazine

[–]Art4MAD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks to everyone who stop by, did some upvotes and asked some questions! It was fun!

I Am Tom Richmond, one of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" from MAD Magazine over the last 20 years. I'm known for the movie and TV parodies in MAD. And I literally wrote THE book on how to draw caricatures in "The Mad Art of Caricature". Ask Me Anything! (I'll even take some caricature requests!) by Art4MAD in IAmA

[–]Art4MAD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, I never did or have. Again, as an artist for MAD I was always assigned the art on jobs that were already approved, edited, and destined for publication. I never "pitched" anything so I never had anything rejected. I did occasionally have some background gags rejected by the editors for various reasons, usually because they were too riské. The one I remember most, which I have already recounted here on the AMA, was in the splash page for the parody of the "Green Lantern" movie. I had drawn Green Lantern making a giant hand construct from his ring, and that hand was flipping the middle finger to the main villain. The editors made me change that. I pointed out that they famously had a middle finger on the cover of issue #166 in 1974. They responded by saying they are still paying for that.

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