Tom's Mad Blog
February 21st, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Right on! It’s another sketch for our classic sitcom series, this time featuring Bea Arthur and Bill Macy from yet another “All in the Family” spinoff series, “Maude”. Unlike a lot of American sitcoms of the time which features large ensemble casts and the interaction between many characters, a number of “Maude” episodes would only feature Arthur and Macy, like a small set stage play. There were plenty of other people in the cast, but creator Norman Learseemed to recognize that Maude herself was so strong a central, driving character and Arthur so perfect in the role, that the focus on her character needed little… READ MORE
February 14th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
It’s another episode of our 70’s sitcom show with our sketch of the original cast of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” Ted Knight, Ed Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Betty White, Mary Tyler Moore and Georgia Engel. This show has a special significance around here, since it was set in Minneapolis. Minnesotans and especially Minneapolis area residents have always claimed the ground breaking title character Mary Richards, the single, independent, successful career woman played by Mary Tyler Moore, as “one of us.” My sister-in-law lives just a few blocks from the house whose exteriors were used for the show. I’ve been past in many times. Of course… READ MORE
February 12th, 2024 | Posted in General
Clicky to Embiggen… Time for another moronic Monday look back at my work for MAD magazine! This week we revisit one of the toughest jobs MAD ever dropped on me, and how it upset even The Lovely Anna! I’m talking about MAD‘s parody of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #540, August 2016. I often get asked how long I was given to do the art on these movie and TV parodies. Since the art is the last step of the entire process we artists usually are up against the print deadline, but… READ MORE
February 7th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
In a rare break from tradition, the original art of this sketch is still available! We continue with our 70’s sitcom series with the cast of “Welcome Back Kotter”, Ron Palillo, John Travolta, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Robert Hegyes, John Sylvester White and Gabe Kaplan. This show was top of my list for favorite sitcoms when I was a kid. It aired in the late seventies when I was between 9 and 13, so the timing was perfect for me to understand the jokes and themes, but also made it just a little bit “adult” and therefore felt like I was getting away with watching something I… READ MORE
February 5th, 2024 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Happy Monday! Time to continue on with our excruciatingly slow crawl through the decades of my work at MAD Magazine. The force is definitely NOT with us this week as we look back again at MAD #439, June 2016. Why a second look? Because I did two things for this issue! Looking back, MAD #439 was a groundbreaker for me for two reasons. As I detailed in our last installment, it was the first time I got to do the art for the cover of a regular issue of MAD. The second reason was for another bucket list moment… doing the art for a parody of… READ MORE
February 1st, 2024 | Posted in General
CLAPTRAP now has its own mini-website! Visit claptrapbook.com for a peek inside the book and to order a copy! READ MORE
January 31st, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Hang on, Bernice… it’s Wednesday again! Time for another “Sketch o’the Week!”. Back when I was doing a sketch series of fictional TV detectives I only deviated from “serious” characters once… drawing Abe Vigoda as Sargent Philip K. Fish from “Barney Miller”. That show was another great example of a 70’s sitcom set almost entirely in one small room/set that relied on the writing and character interaction to provide stories and laughs. “Barney Miller” was one of the best examples of making that format work incredibly well. It was one of my favorite shows to watch in syndication back in the 80’s. So, this week… READ MORE
January 25th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
We’re back to our usual “Sketch o’ the Week” insanity, and the continuation of our “classic TV sitcoms” theme. This week’s sketch is of the two main stars of “The Jeffersons”, Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford! “The Jeffersons” was a spin-off of “All in the Family”, and actually ran for more seasons (11) than “All in the Family” (9). It was ground breaking for being based on a black family that was portrayed as successful and wealthy, and for being the first TV series to prominently feature a married interracial couple. Norman Lear claimed in his autobiography that he got the idea to move the… READ MORE
