Tom's Mad Blog
November 21st, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You’ve drawn so many caricatures of famous celebrities. However, has there ever been a celebrity that you were unable to draw because it was too difficult? A: No such thing. You can caricature anybody. How far you can push the exaggerations and how good the recognizability is is all about your observations and execution of the caricature. Some faces may be more elusive to you than others, but all are solvable. Sometimes I’ll find a caricature just rolls off the end of my pencil without much effort, and others I’ll do several sketches and try several different approaches before I am satisfied. It’s hard… READ MORE
November 17th, 2021 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
Another Wednesday, another classic rock caricature. This time it’s guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan! As usual, the original is available in the Studio Store! READ MORE
November 15th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday already?!? Time for another installment of the game show that has everyone reaching for their remote controls, our chronological crawl through my work at MAD Magazine! This episode we have a look at the work I did for MAD #463, March 2006, which features a first for me with the magazine… the first issue in which I had two separate pieces featured. That’s twice the garbage for the same outrageous price! The first piece I did was a parody of the TV Show “Everybody Hates Chris”, written by the great Arnie Kogen. Whenever MAD does a “narrated” show like this there are always… READ MORE
November 14th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How has the experience of doing parodies for your book CLAPTRAP without the art department and editors from MAD’s involvement been like? A: Those schmucks? It’s been like a giant weight lifted off our shoulders! Like running through fields of flowers on a sunny summer day with the birds chirping and a song in our hearts! We hate it. All kidding aside there are pros and cons to not working with the MAD editorial/art department on these parodies. The pros are that we can do whatever we want, and are free to maybe take some risks or try different things that would likely not have flown with the… READ MORE
November 10th, 2021 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
This week’s sketch goes back to my “classic rockers” well with a caricature of Aerosmith axeman Joe Perry! As always, the original is available in my Studio Store. If you are just seeing this sketch now, you are behind the times! If you were a subscriber to my weekly newsletter “The Ink Stained Wretch” you’d have seen this sketch exclusively weeks ago! Plus subscribers get to suggest future subjects, like this one. Subscribe today for some fun in your inbox every Wednesday including other exclusive content and sneak peeks. READ MORE
November 8th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday! That means it’s time to hit the hardwood and drive to the paint with another sports-centric job for MAD. This is one of those two page spreads made up of individual spot illustrations and an unwieldy, far too long and wordy title we all love to page right past as we look for Sergio‘s “A MAD Look At…” This one is called “The Good Points and Bad Points of the New NBA Dress Code”, written by Jeff Kruse and Nate Fakes and first appearing in MAD #462, Feb 2006. Not much to say about this piece other than it would prove to be… READ MORE
November 7th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’m a fan of the caricature and realistic paintings of Sebastian Kruger. It’s always puzzled me, though, as to how he acquires the rights to use the source photographs he does. I’m assuming it’s easier to use a photo for caricature since there is so much distortion that there is often no way to say what photo was used. In your case, you often use film images that can be obviously linked to an original photo while not looking exactly like it. Still, there is no other source for the iconic “Here’s Johnny,” Nicholson photo than “The Shining” so it’s obvious that even the… READ MORE
November 3rd, 2021 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This isn’t really a SotW, but a recent MAD cover commission. I am slowly working through the queue of commissions from the virtual end of my New York Comic Con appearance. This one is actually a more elaborate version of one I did back in March for a customer who wanted to add a mashup of Max Von Sydow‘s “Three Eyed Raven” character from “Game of Thrones” in with his knight from “The Seventh Seal”. I dried out three gray markers doing this one! READ MORE
