Tom's Mad Blog
April 7th, 2015 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Here’s a great HuffPo interview with MAD VP and head editor John Ficarra and issue #533’s guest editor “Weird Al” Yankovic. This issue really sounds like a lot of fun. I can say that Weird Al has a cameo in the piece I did for the issue, and I am sure he’ll be popping up in many of the other features as well. He’s assembled an all-star lineup of contributors to the issue. read the article for all the details. The art above is a commission I did for a mutual friend a few years ago who gave it to Al on his 50th birthday.… READ MORE
April 6th, 2015 | Posted in News
I saw a post about a Facebook group lobbying about this this over the weekend, and Mark Evanier mentioned it yesterday on his terrific blog. Now it’s a headline story on CNN. The folks in Celoron, NY, which is Lucille Ball‘s birthplace, want the statue removed because they consider it “ugly” and that it “does not do justice to the “I Love Lucy” star”. Here’s another shot of it: Uhhhh…. I have to say I agree. It is pretty hideous. I don’t think anyone in a million years could identify that as Lucille Ball if not told first it was meant to be her. I… READ MORE
April 6th, 2015 | Posted in General
Last week I posted about how we got the ending of the parody of “X2: X-Men United” wrong thanks to working from a script in advance of the film’s release. When we used to try doing that, we’d occasionally have a panel or so with a scene that didn’t make the final movie, but I thought X2 was the only movie we got the ending wrong. An astute e-mailer pointed out we also got the ending of the parody of “Watchmen” wrong. Forgot about that one. It wasn’t as drastic a difference as X2, but they did change things a bit from the script Desmond… READ MORE
April 5th, 2015 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: If you couldn’t draw or work in art at all what do you see yourself doing for a living? Depends on what you mean by “art” under your restrictions. If, by your question’s rules,¬¨‚Ć I just could not draw but would still be allowed to work in the creative fields, I think I would have tried to be a writer. I’m not sure I could have pulled off a career in that field, but I think I would have given it a try. If my entire right-brain creativity center was short-circuited and I had no aptitude in the creative arts at all, I would… READ MORE
April 4th, 2015 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
This one is actually an older sketch that appeared in my book of an older Ozzy, but what the hell… now it’s part of the classic rock sketch series. READ MORE
April 3rd, 2015 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
Thought I’d just finish up with the Beatles by doing Ringo Starr before moving on to some other subjects. I’d already done John Lennon some time ago… …maybe I’ll do a same-era one as these others sometime during this series. For now it’s on to other classic rock subjects. READ MORE
April 3rd, 2015 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Tom Koch, a veteran writer for MAD and yet another of the “old guard” I never got a chance to meet, passed away back on March 22nd. I’d have posted about this earlier but I didn’t seen any decent obits about him until today. Tom was a comedy writer for television and performers, and worked in the 50’s with the well-known comedy team Bob & Ray. His first few assignments for MAD were for the short-lived “Bob & Ray” feature in the magazine, featuring some of the earliest MAD artwork from a young, up-and-coming artist named Mort Drucker, back in 1957. He continued to write… READ MORE
April 2nd, 2015 | Posted in News
An old pal of mine, Jeremy “Jert” Townsend is having an art show called “People Ruined the Internet” this Saturday, April 4th, at the Hodgepodge Coffee House and Gallery, 720 Moreland, Atlanta, GA. The show will feature a lot of Jeremy’s terrific, eclectic, whimsical, and sometimes downright creepy, illustrations as well as a selected number of the works of others, including a little piece of mine. A sizable portion of the sales of any originals there will be going to The Center for Children and Young Adults. This is the original I sent down there for the show: I wish I was going to be… READ MORE
