Tom's Mad Blog

Wall of Shame: Pearls Before Swine

February 14th, 2007 | Posted in Wall of Shame

This piece is the one example of something that is not my own art on the Wall of Shame. Back in August my friend and hilarious syndicated strip cartoonist Stephen Pastis gave me a “cameo” in his popular strip Pearls Before Swine. Here it is again as it appeared in the Sunday funnies: Click for a closer look I told the story about how it came about in this post, but to make a long story short Stephen is a fan of MAD and likes my work. He came up with this gag and sprung it on me when we visited him in Santa Rosa… READ MORE

On the Stands: MAD #475

February 13th, 2007 | Posted in MAD Magazine

This issue is already in subscriber’s mailboxes and in comic shops this week, and should be on news stands in the next week: MAD # 475 (March 2007) Cover (Mark Frederickson) The Fundalini Pages (Ray Alma, Paul Coker, Desmond Devlin, Duck Edwing, Garth Gerhart, Jeff Kruse, Francis Mao, Adam Rust, Kiernan P. Schmitt) A Day in the Life of Dane Cook (Scott Maiko, Hermann Mejia) The Snowman: The Alternate Version (Emily Flake) John Caldwell’s Thanks to YouTube… (John Caldwell) Refrigerator Art Reviews (Jeff Kruse, Irving Schild) MAD Decontructs TV Talk Shows… “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” (Desmond Devlin, Tom Richmond) Signs You Have a… READ MORE

The Dark Tower #1

February 12th, 2007 | Posted in General

Saturday was Comic Book Day, which saw Tommy and I reading our prized purchases while munching Roly Poly sandwiches and sipping soda pop. Of course the big release this week was Marvel’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born issue #1 of a seven issue series. As I’ve already written, I have looked at this series with a suspicious eye being a huge fan of the Stephen King series of novels. I was not sure anybody could really do it justice in comic book form. Therefore I bought issue one with low expectations. I liken this situation somewhat to when I first heard that there was… READ MORE

Sunday Mailbag

February 11th, 2007 | Posted in Mailbag

Q: What does your business card look like? Surely an artist like you has put some creativity into your own advertising. A: Until this past June, I hadn’t had a business card for over ten years. I just felt there was no need for it. Serious clients contacted me through either another art director or via one of my marketing efforts like a direct mail piece or a sourcebook ad. It seemed like the only people who asked for a business card were ones I didn’t want to hear back from… generally people who wanted a caricature of grandpa for Christmas or an artist to… READ MORE

Finding “Lost” Again

February 10th, 2007 | Posted in General

We had a few of the neighbors over in the home theater to watch the “spring premiere” of “Lost” on Wednesday. After a 15 week hiatus, the show began a promised 16 consecutive week run to the end of the season with no repeats. I wrote this post back in November with my thoughts on the shows direction, or lack thereof. In short I felt the show was being too stingy with any real plot advancement, and that the little glimpses of actual story-line development we got were not enough for viewers to continue to stay on the wagon. Saying the show is “about the… READ MORE

Land of Confusion

February 9th, 2007 | Posted in General

I was at the gym yesterday warming up on a cross trainer, staring at the huge bank of TV screens they have along the upper wall. Most are silent, as you need to tune your radio to a posted specific frequency to get the corresponding sound, but one is the “Lifetime Fitness” channel, and that is all music videos with the sound throughout the gym. On that channel they play a lot of kick ass music to really pump you up for exercise… you know, like Cher, Hilary Duff or Ashlee Simpson. I hope everybody understands that sentence was typed with my tongue firmly in… READ MORE

The Dreaded Deadline Demon

February 8th, 2007 | Posted in General

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Lost vs. Heroes, Round Two

February 7th, 2007 | Posted in General

Well, tonight is the big “spring premiere” of “Lost”. I watched the “fall finale” again thanks to the miracle of iTunes and honestly I had forgotten about half of that episode. This long hiatus was a huge mistake and I hope they pick things up with some big revelations and major plot movement. If not, that hiatus is going to seem even longer. Meanwhile, “Heroes” is three episodes into the new year and far from spinning it’s wheels, it just keeps getting better. Things are starting to come together is many ways. It seems that the world of “Heroes” is a little like the world… READ MORE

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