Tom's Mad Blog
January 14th, 2015 | Posted in News
Michael Cavna with the Washington Post’s Comic Riffs writes a great piece about satire on this side of the pond and the effects (if any) the Charlie Hebdo massacre may have on it. Interviews with MAD‘s John Ficarra, editorial cartoonists Matt Bohrs, Jack Ohman and Jen Sorenson, and me. READ MORE
January 14th, 2015 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This is heavily based on a gag illustration I did for the MAD show on Cartoon Network, featuring everyone’s favorite cinematic God of Thunder, Chris Hemsworth. READ MORE
January 13th, 2015 | Posted in News
I was a guest on “The Daily Circuit” morning show on Minnesota Public Radio with Kerri Miller this morning. They brought me in to discuss cartooning in the U.S. vs other parts of the world, and to address the issue of “how far is too far” when it comes to satire and editorial cartooning. I’m hardly the guy to ask about that… after all a typical example of my “hard hitting” satirical work would be making fun of Jennifer Lawrence and the latest Hunger Games movie. However, you don’t have to be a practitioner of that type of cartooning to understand it and its social/cultural… READ MORE
January 12th, 2015 | Posted in Monday MADness
In trying to explain what the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is to a lot of Americans who had never heard of it, many news sources mentioned MAD Magazine as a comparison. One even went so far as to wonder how the American public would react if a group of gunman went into the MAD offices and gunned down the staff. The comparison does not fit. While MAD is not afraid to take on controversial topics like religion (and does), it does so within certain boundaries. It attacks hypocrisy, abused authority, and dishonesty, not the core beliefs that people hide behind when performing those acts. MAD… READ MORE
January 11th, 2015 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: In light of the events this week with the Charlie Hebdo massacre, have you ever done any work where you were worried you might offend some crazy extremists and get death threats? A: Yes. Every time I have to draw Justin Bieber, I’m afraid a belieber will jump me in the streets and force me to listen to some of his music. Seriously, not really. I don’t do the kind of work that pushes people’s buttons or calls into question their beliefs on something as volatile as religion. I’ve done some politically charged stuff but I can only remember one time I did something… READ MORE
January 9th, 2015 | Posted in General
Now showing for the foreseeable future… READ MORE
January 8th, 2015 | Posted in News
Yesterday’s horrific events at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo threw the world’s cartooning community into simultaneous disbelief, mourning, and anger. As president of the National Cartoonists Society, I spent the day fielding phone calls, emails, posting responses and comments on behalf of the NCS, and doing radio interviews for ABC in Australia and a station in Seattle. For a while I was scheduled to do a live TV interview on “FOX and Friends” this morning but they ended up booking an editorial cartoonist instead (not sure who but I bet they had one of those overrated Pulitzer prizes). Too bad, I was going to… READ MORE
January 7th, 2015 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Quick warm up sketch of POTUS today… bet this guy is thinking about cartoonists right now after the events in Paris at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The National Cartoonists Society posted a condemnation of the attacks this morning. READ MORE