Tom's Mad Blog
April 12th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The next stop on our MADdeningly slow chronological slog through my MAD work is a look at my 21st piece in the magazine, “MAD Sizes Up the 2003 Oscars: Best Picture” from MAD #428, April 2003. The writing is credited to Greg Leitman, Barry Liebmann, David Shayne and Mike Snider. The Alfred “Oscar” statue is by Harry North, ESQ. MAD #428 had two other of these “”MAD Sizes Up the 2003 Oscars” features, all written by the same crew. “Best Actor” had art by Drew Friedman, and “Best Actress” had art by Rick Tulka. As it happens, we are finally reaching the point where I… READ MORE
April 11th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Welp, it’s been a while since I’ve had an empty mailbag but here it is. After 659 answered mailbag questions over the last (nearly) 15 years, perhaps this feature has run its course. If I get any questions I’ll answer them, otherwise I will start posting classic “mailbag” questions on Sundays. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here! READ MORE
April 9th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
The Usual Idiots at MAD posted this sneak peek from MAD #19 on their Instagram yesterday, so I thought I’d share it here. It’s from a NEW piece of art I did for that issue… a two pager wishing Al Jaffee a happy birthday and tying in to their “MAD Predicts the Future” issue theme. The issue drops next week Tuesday, so I will share more of the art then. And yes, that’s also a nod to Johnny Carson‘s “Carnac the Magnificent”. READ MORE
April 8th, 2021 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
Back in the 80’s and 90’s I did a lot of airbrush work, including the occasional piece of clothing. I still have this Val Kilmer Batman I painted on the back of a motorcycle jacket around 1995 or so. READ MORE
April 7th, 2021 | Posted in General
No “Sketch o’the Week” today, or maybe for a while. Between work on CLAPTRAP, a freelance job that is a lot of work with a tight deadline, and all the artwork I still need to do for my “Virtual Artist’s Alley” event, I am swamped. Here’s one of the “Mock MAD Cover” commissions I did recently for a customer. Tombow brush pens and Copic markers on 9 x 12 bristol. READ MORE
April 6th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I was saddened to hear of the passing of MAD‘s “Poet Laureate”, longtime writer Frank Jacobs yesterday. He was 91. Frank is best known for his song parodies in MAD AKA “Sing to the Tune of…”, which became not just a trademark element of MAD’s repertoire of recurring features, but the focus of its most famous legal battle. Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc., 329 F.2d 541 (2d Cir. 1964), became a landmark case of copyright law. Irving Berlin (and a bunch of music publishers) sued MAD over the song parodies that were part of a paperback book entitled More Trash from Mad No. 4, claiming copyright infringement of the original… READ MORE
April 5th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We continue our inane and pointless wandering through my appearances in MAD Magazine with my 20th contribution, a return to the world of sports with “MAD‘S Proposed Rule Changes for the Upcoming NASCAR Season”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and appearing in MAD #427, March 2003. This piece was unique in that I was told to draw a caricature of someone in it that was part of an advertising/promotional campaign. This surprised and shocked me actually… coming from a magazine that very famously not only refused to carry ads for many decades but had dedicated many hundreds of pages on features ridiculing advertising… READ MORE
April 4th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Q: Has anyone ever drawn Alfred E Neuman from an angle that was NOT “straight on”? I know he has been drawn from the back of his head (but that angle is also sort of “straight on”). Just wondering if you know of any instance of an artist have tried him at an angle? A: Yes, Alfred has on occasion been drawn in a 3/4 view or even in profile, but VERY seldom, and not much after 1960 or so. When I first started with MAD, I was told that any depictions I might do of Alfred should be based solidly on the Mingo original. Artists are… READ MORE
