Tom's Mad Blog
November 27th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Monday MADness is here again, but this week we have a look at a side project for the MAD gang I did in 2016 that was published between MAD #537 and #538. These publications were called “Bookazines” and were 96-ish page square bound “specials” usually billed as “Special Collector’s Editions”, and contained reprinted material around some theme. This one was entitled “MAD Presents Oscar Winners (and Losers!)”, and mostly contained movie spoofs of Oscar winning movies plus a smattering of other movie related features. I got the cover assignment, which I suspect was a bit of a trial run for a “real” cover assignment that… READ MORE
November 23rd, 2023 | Posted in General
I’ve been posting this sketch on Thanksgiving for about 15 years now. I’d do a new one but I’m too busy today eating one of his pals and spending time with family. Happy Thanksgiving! READ MORE
November 22nd, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, so I thought I’d share some JFK caricatures and art I’ve done over the years. The above sketch was part of a series I did in 2015 of all the U.S. Presidents. What did I do them for, you ask? As part of a centerpiece arrangement for the 2015 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award Banquet, held that year in Washington DC. It was my final Reubens as NCS president, and The Lovely Anna did the centerpieces. She popped her head into my studio one day and said “I need you to… READ MORE
November 20th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
May the farce be with you! It’s time for another brush with the dark side as we have a look back and my work for MAD Magazine. This week we look at the second of two pieces I did the art for in MAD #537, Feb 2016. This second feature is called the “ForceSonic 92-cm Lightsaber Manual”, and was written by Scott Maiko. I was pretty excited to get to do this feature because it was spoofing “Star Wars”, and I have been a Star Wars geek since I was 11 in 1977 and saw the original film 56 times in the local theater that… READ MORE
November 15th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Those were the days! If one had to pick a U.S. sitcom that was the most groundbreaking, daring, and yet hugely successful of all, “All in the Family” would be at or near the top of every list. Norman Lear‘s masterpiece of a show addressed subjects that the formerly staunchly uptight American audiences would never have dreamed they’d see on network TV: racism, homosexuality, rape, abortion, the Vietnam war, Women’s Lib, impotence, and so many more social and personal issues. It was a truly revolutionary show in this country. My sketch features the main cast, Jean Stapleton, Carroll O’Connor, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers. This show was one of… READ MORE
November 13th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s another moronic Monday, and another look back at my work for MAD. This week we have a peek at one of “MAD‘s 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things of 2015″. I did the art for Dumb Thing #13, which was about the bribery scandal involving the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). In May of 2015, more than two dozen FIFA officials and associates were indicted for what was revealed to be a more than two decade long scheme of accepting over $150 million in bribes, in part for the awarding of hosting rights to the World Cup. A bunch of people went to jail.… READ MORE
November 8th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Nanu Nanu! It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for our “Sketch o’the Week”! Shazbot! We continue our “classic TV sitcoms” series, now in the 1970s, with “Mork and Mindy” debuted in May of 1979, so it BARELY qualifies as a 70’s sitcom. However it was one of my favorite shows as a teenager and I get to draw whatever the hell I want for these weekly sketches, so here’s Robin Williams and Pam Dawber as the titular characters. “Mork and Mindy” was a spin-off of “Happy Days”, after a single episode featured Williams as Mork, an alien who planned to abduct Richie but was stopped by Fonzie. The… READ MORE
November 6th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s another MAD Monday, and we are one step closer to the end of this seemingly endless look back at my work for MAD Magazine. This week we get away from the world of movie and TV parodies and have a peek at a feature article called “Home Renovations: HGTV vs. Real Life”, written by the marvelously talented Teresa Burns Parkhurst and appearing in MAD #536, Dec 2015. Most people who are familiar with my work in MAD think first of the movie and TV parodies, and would assume the majority of the work I did for the magazine were those kinds of “continuity” spoofs.… READ MORE
