Tom's Mad Blog
February 15th, 2011 | Posted in Freelancing
This is my cover illustration for Reason magazine’s March 2011 issue featuring California’s new (well, technically his third term but his last two were from 1975-1983) Jerry Brown. The above is the original cover with the state labels but the magazine’s editors decide we needed to drop the labels for the printed version. The article it was accompanying was about how California was separating itself from the surrounding west states politically. Here are some of the rough concept pencils for the job… all variations on the same basic scene which was agreed on earlier: The folks at Reason were fun to work with. READ MORE
February 14th, 2011 | Posted in News
Photo by John Gessner: ThisWeek Newspapers This Week Newspapers, a suburban weekly around these parts, must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel for feature articles because they published a story on me last week which includes the most awkward picture of me ever (see above)… and that’s saying something. Clearly the bat-stuff in my studio intrigued the author. I refused to put on the suit for him but I did throw a couple of batarangs around to demonstrate my mad batarang skilz. By way of clarification (should you be sufficiently bored today to follow the link and read the article), it is not… READ MORE
February 13th, 2011 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve read your answer to the question “do you do any writing for MAD?” (you add background gags and jokes, but don’t write the dialogue, yes?), but who does the writing for MAD? How does that work? A: Having never written anything per se for MAD, I don’t know firsthand about the writing process for them. I have learned a fair amount about it from writers who I have corresponded with, however. Several MAD writers occasionally drop by the MAD Blog just to make sure I am not talking smack about them, so if I have any of this wrong maybe they can set… READ MORE
February 12th, 2011 | Posted in General
I am leaving behind the frigid tundra of Minnesota for the sun and surf of Maui for a week with The Lovely Anna. I plan to get my fill of ahi sashimi, mai tais and sun. I might even blog. READ MORE
February 11th, 2011 | Posted in On the Drawing Board
Kinda busy right now… here’s a couple of recent jobs: Penthouse spot illustration for Dave Navarro column: Click for a closer look… Workplace poster illustration- pencils, inks and final: Click for a closer look… Click for a closer look… Click for a closer look… READ MORE
February 10th, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
On news stands on Feb 16th and in comic book shops today: MAD # 508 (April 2011) Cover (Mark Fredrickson) The Fundalini Pages (Michael Gallagher, Jeffery Ford, Ward Sutton, Chris Houghton, Scott Nickel, Jason Yungbluth, Jeff Kruse, Hermann Mejia, Rick Tulka, Sam Viviano, Glen LeLievre, Todd Clark, Charles Akins, Garth Gerhart, Leonardo Rodriguez, Bob Staake) SAD MEN (Arnie Kogen, Tom Richmond) What We Really Learned from WikiLeaks (Barry Liebmann, Paul Coker) MAD’s Moronic Outtakes from Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Uncredited) A MAD Look At Murder (Sergio Aragon?¬©s, Tom Luth) Spy vs Spy (Peter Kuper) MAD Exclusive Excerpt: Justin Bieber’s Autobiography (Desmond Devlin, Scott Bricher) The MAD… READ MORE
February 9th, 2011 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Our SotW subject this week is actor Adrien Brody… that nose is something else, but he has a lot of other features to work with: the long, angular face; the sad, baggy eyes; the thick, expressive eyebrows; the mop of unruly hair; the thin mouth. I watched the movie “Splice” in which Brody stars the other day. I found it very disturbing and not recommended IMO. Just weird in a sick and twisted way, but not the entertaining kind of sick and twisted… more the squirming and averting your eyes sick and twisted. READ MORE
February 8th, 2011 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Today several sources are carrying an AP story on the next issue of MAD and it’s cover boy, Alfred E. Bieber. Due on news stands on February 22nd, the issue takes some shots at the Canadian singer including dissing his movie, his book, his music and, of course, the fact that he’s Canadian. 😛 I’ll publish a table of contents of the issue likely Thursday, in which I have a 6 page parody of a popular TV show. I can’t say the name of the show until I get the official okay from the guys at MAD, so I won’t MENtion it here until I… READ MORE
