Tom's Mad Blog
February 26th, 2020 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Thought I’d do something different todayk, and do my “Sketch o’the Week” in brush pens on bristol rather than pencil. I did a small “remark” head of this caricature of Christopher Reeve the other day for someone who ordered a copy of my Superman print from my website, and I kind of liked how it turned out so I did a bigger one for the SotW. As usual, the original is available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
February 25th, 2020 | Posted in General
One of the most important people in the world of MAD and E.C. Comics that you’ve probably never heard of passed away this past Sunday. Russ Cochran was a publisher and comics archivist whose love of the comics medium allowed later generations access to, and the subsequent enjoyment of, the legendary EC Comics line, including MAD. Russ published reprint collections of a number of terrific classic comics, but it was his The Complete EC Library that most people associate as his greatest endeavor. Over the course of 18 years starting in 1978, he published almost every EC comic in 66 hardbound volumes contained in 17… READ MORE
February 24th, 2020 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Well, the new MAD era has begun in earnest. MAD #12 appeared in comic book shops last week. This issue is the first with the full-blown “mostly classic content with some new content” mix we’ve been told was coming. What we see is probably pretty indicative of what we can expect going forward… themed issues with about 20% new material, and 80% classic content with some colorizing here and there. What is reader reaction? Outrage? Sounding the death knell? Mass revolt that MAD is no longer focused on skewering the current world around us and instead is focused mostly on nostalgia/the past? Almost none of… READ MORE
February 23rd, 2020 | Posted in Mailbag
The mailbag is empty again. That’s been happening a lot in the last year. After answering over 600 questions on Sundays since this blog got started in 2009, I think it might be time to semi-retire this feature. I am not going to actively solicit for new questions anymore. If/when I do get a new question or two I will do a new Mailbag post, but when the mailbag is empty I will start reposting old mailbag questions that are ones people tend to keep asking about. If you never saw that post, it’s new to you, right? Thanks to all who have asked questions… READ MORE
February 21st, 2020 | Posted in General
I’ll be in the Windy City one week from today at C2E2, doing my Usual Idiocy in Artist’s Alley. Stop by and grab one of my updated Doctor Who prints that includes 13th Doctor Jodie Whittaker, a signed copy of MAD, a bunch of other crap, and caricatures and commissions! Or, just come by and say “Hi”! READ MORE
February 20th, 2020 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
Remember CD-ROM games? I doubt it. They used to be a big deal. Now the mobile phones we use are 100x as powerful as the desktop computers that ran these things back in the 90’s. I’ve said many times you never know where your work might end up being used, and sometimes the most unlikely of projects will come your way when you freelance. If someone had said to me that I’d be “illustrating” a series of CD-ROM games I would have scoffed… after all even in the 90’s games like Myst and The 7th Guest were the standard for graphics… lavish and realistic images… READ MORE
February 19th, 2020 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I’m under the gun with several projects right now so I’m copping out of a new Sketch o’the Week today and posting this instead. It’s is an older sketch I colorized and used in the background of the MAD parody of the show “Mike and Molly” back in MAD number something-or-other. A young William Shatner was notoriously hard to caricature but the more… uh… mature Shatner is a little easier subject. READ MORE
February 18th, 2020 | Posted in General
I got this as a mailbag question not so long ago: Tom, have you ever written about how you got into caricaturing? When you realized this was something you could do? I used to draw cartoon characters when I was about 5, but that’s about as far as I got…LOL. If you haven’t, or if you have, maybe you could repeat it. – David Lubin, Tampa FL I thought this to be a bit too long a story for a Sunday Mailbag, so I left it for a regular post. Feel free to bail out when you get bored… People sometimes ask what got me… READ MORE
