#7: Tom Richmond (@Art4Mad)
#7: Tom Richmond (@Art4Mad)
Someone You Might Like with One Hell of A Drawing Arm
Tom Richmond — @Art4Mad
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that of all the people I’ve met, Tom is without a doubt, one of them.
He is probably one of the best live caricaturists in this dimension, and his impression of a “working illustrator” is spot-on. I like to think of him as less as a “dear friend”, and more of an “Older brother from a first marriage I wasn’t alive for.” He is talented. He is professional. He takes the cake for “Best Booth at Artists Alley” (Exhibitor Table# I-02, FYI), and above all, his wife, Anna, is better at life than anyone else presently living. I think you’ll really like ‘em:
Tom’s Abridged Bio:
Legend has it Tom was born with a pencil in his hand… something his mother steadfastly refuted. She would, however, tell anybody who would listen that his head was the size of a basketball.
To pay for his college education, Tom got a summer job in 1985 drawing caricatures at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. It was here that Tom learned an important life lesson: it was possible to get paid to make fun of people. This remains an ongoing (and some would say futile) goal.
Tom was given his first MAD assignment for reasons that has nothing to do with envelopes stuffed with non-sequential bills. Today he is pleased to be considered one of the “Usual Gang of Idiots”, at least until they can find somebody better who will work as cheaply. Until then you can see his movie/TV parodies and feature article illustrations in almost every issue of MAD going back 20 years.