Tom's Mad Blog
April 1st, 2021 | Posted in General
Five years ago I pulled this epic April Fool’s Day prank on a vacant lot about a mile up the street from our house. The lot had contained a BP gas station/auto repair business that had closed up about a year before, and the building had been razed the previous fall. It sat on the corner of a very busy road about 100 yards from the on/off ramps of a main metro highway, so it was a high traffic area. There was a lot of speculation as to what was going to be built on the lot, but so far no signage or any official… READ MORE
March 31st, 2021 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
Well, actually it’s David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust persona, complete with screwed-up eyes and screwed-down hairdo, like some cat from Japan. He played guitar. READ MORE
March 30th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It was announced last week that toy company Funko is making an Alfred E. Neuman version of their popular “Pop” toy figures. This is being greeting mostly with disdain from MAD fans because the figure is not “Alfred-like” enough. The face is total symmetrical, the eyes are on the same horizontal, etc. It’s missing many of the trademark elements of Alfred E Neuman. This is to be expected, however. The entire line of Funko Pop figures do exactly what they do with this Alfred doll. They totally homogenize the look of whoever or whatever character they are supposed to be into the same Pop figure… READ MORE
March 29th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We continue our relentless chronological crawl through my MAD work with a look at my 19th job for the magazine, a TV parody of the show “Scrubs”, written by MAD Senior Editor Charlie Kadau, and appearing in MAD #426, Feb 2003. This was the only piece I ever worked on with Charlie, who wrote a number of TV parodies among his many other writing credits for the magazine, on top of being an editor for a measly 35 years or so. There are a number of doctor cameos in the splash but also two “insider” ones. The guy with the curly red hair putting on the rubber glove by Dr.… READ MORE
March 28th, 2021 | Posted in News
My Virtual Artists Alley table is closed up! Thanks to all who stopped by. I have an ENORMOUS list of commissions to do that will take me a long time, especially while I’m working on CLAPTRAP and other freelance jobs. Gotta get back to the drawing board! READ MORE
March 28th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When is the “Virtual Artist’s Alley” comic con table you are doing right now going to end? A: I’m glad you asked that question! It ends at 5 pm CDT TODAY! That leaves only a few more hours to get one of my comic-con exclusive type commissions and order merchandise with FREE domestic shipping! So what are you waiting for, you putz? A furshlugginer invitation? Stop by my virtual table ASAP! Thanks to A.E. Neuman for the question. 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
March 27th, 2021 | Posted in General
It’s day two of my “Virtual Artist’s Alley” table, being held this weekend in lieu of the cancelled/postponed C2E2 and Wondercon (I forgot that one was also supposed to be this weekend). The above is an example of one of the kinds of commissions that I only do at conventions, live or virtual. It’s a “mock” MAD cover, done with brush pens and copic markers on a 9×12 piece of bristol paper with the MAD logo professionally printed just like a real cover. You get to art direct your own MAD cover! It can feature you, or characters from your favorite movie, TV show, or… READ MORE
March 26th, 2021 | Posted in News
Since no one can be at C2E2 in Chicago this weekend, I’m doing another of my “Virtual Artist’s Alley” booth events during the original 2021 C2E2 dates. That’s this weekend! I have all the stuff I usually sell at comic cons, including a lot of EXCLUSIVE commission stuff I ONLY do at comic cons. Visit here for all the details! Ends on Sunday at 5:00 pm CDT! READ MORE
