Tom's Mad Blog
October 22nd, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
As long as I am shilling MAD books today, I also just got my copy of MAD’s Greatest Artists: Mort Drucker last week, and it is fantastic. Mort is a visual genius who influenced generations of cartoonists over fifty years (and counting) of work in MAD. Of course Mort was also one of the most successful freelance humorous illustrators of the 20th century, and his work was just as incredible outside the pages of MAD, but this book concentrates (obviously) on just his MAD work. From his early “Bob and Ray Dept.” art through his defining the movie and TV parodies in the magazine, his… READ MORE
October 22nd, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
While I was in NYC last week for that MAD segment on the CBS morning show, I got a copy of the new 60th anniversary book Totally MAD (and a bunch of signatures from some terrific members of the “Usual Gang of Idiots” while I was at it). This book is a real treat. Even the inside flap of the dust jacket gets the MAD treatment! I know this book wasn’t easy to put together, considering that: a) the gang at MAD did it in about three months, and b) they somehow had to take over 26,000 pages of material from the magazine’s 60 year… READ MORE
October 21st, 2012 | Posted in Mailbag
Q:¬¨‚Ć I wanted my son to follow my love for art & music, but it seems his interest is more on computer games and some sports. Do you encourage or just wish one of your children would follow your footsteps as an illustrator regardless if they would make it as a career or not? A: I know your exact question is more specifically geared toward my feelings, and I’ll answer that at the end of this post, but this is an interesting general topic. Whenever I am in conversation with someone and they ask “Do you have any kids?”, they always (assuming they know what… READ MORE
October 19th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
This past week I went to NYC to participate in the filming of a CBS Sunday Morning special segment on MAD’s 60th anniversary, and spent Wednesday in the MAD offices with several other members of the Usual Gang of Idiots. Not sure I will actually be on TV at all, but it was fun to hang out. Present were the entire MAD staff (including longtime artist and current art director Sam Viviano) as well as UGOI’s Tom Bunk, Dick DeBartolo,¬¨‚ĆDesmond Devlin, Al Jaffee, Peter Kuper, Jacob Lambert (also a staffer now), Matt Lassen, Patrick Merrell and James Warhola, Here are some pictures (clicky to embiggen):… READ MORE
October 18th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Here is a great article on MAD‘s 60 years of history from FastCompany.com, which includes a slideshow of covers, and interview with MAD editor John Ficarra and plenty of other pics (even one with me in it from our Comic-Con panel!). Well worth a read… READ MORE
October 17th, 2012 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
And now for something completely different . . . a sketch done entirely on the iPad using one of those stupid, marshmallow-ended Pogo styluses. This was mainly an exercise in frustration. I gave up on it after spending 4 times as long on what you see as I would have just using a good, old fashioned pencil and paper. I stand by my previous opinion that, while drawing on an iPad is possible, its not very fun or intuitive. I spend most of my time fighting the limitations of the iPad, so I didn’t really concentrate on the drawing and it’s pretty so-so at best… READ MORE
October 16th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Clicky to embiggen… Well, since this is the whole article I guess it doesn’t qualify as a “sneak peek”, but here it is. Not my usual MAD style but a fun departure on a rare “not a movie or TV parody” job. I thought the feature needed a painted look. Article written by Barry Liebmann. Speaking of movie parodies, check out the 8 page tour-de-force “Twilight” parody (all 5 movies!) in this issue written by Desmond Devlin with art by terrific Aussie illustrator Anton Emdin. It almost makes me wish I’d seen the movies or read the books so I knew what the hell they… READ MORE
October 15th, 2012 | Posted in MAD Magazine
On news stands Oct 23rd, in comic book shops this week, available for download on the iPad right now, and in many subscriber mailboxes already: MAD # 518 (December 2012) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Jeff Kruse, Ward Sutton, Bob Staake, Rick Tulka, Emily Flake, Nick Meglin, Paul Coker, Sam Sisco, Jay Ruth, Kenny Keil, Hermann Mejia, Garth Gerhart, Peter Bagge, Dick DeBartolo, John Caldwell) The Toilet Saga (Desmond Devlin, Anton Emdin) Are You and activist or a Slacktivist? (Desmond Devlin, Paul Coker) A MAD Look at College (Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Colors: Tom Luth) 2013 MAD Pull-Out Calendar (John Caldwell) Expectorate Native American Sputum- A… READ MORE
