Tom's Mad Blog
December 15th, 2020 | Posted in General
It is believed that the first piece of art was painted on the wall of a cave by early humans. The second piece of art was also painted on the wall of a cave, but the prehistoric person that painted it was heard to complain that “they just don’t make this paint like they used to.” So began a long tradition of artists complaining that the art supplies they make today are no where near as good as the ones they used to make…or they don’t make them anymore…Or they aren’t available, etc. Art supplies are discontinued, formulas changed, manufacturing methods altered, materials switched, etc.… READ MORE
December 14th, 2020 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Each Monday I’m doing an installment of a complete, chronological look at every job I did for MAD over my 20 year run for the magazine, complete with whatever stories, anecdotes, or milestones, might apply along with the full article. This week’s installment is a look at my fourth appearance in MAD, which was my first TV/movie parody. The subject was TV show “Malcolm in the Middle” entitled “Malcontent in the Muddle” written by my CLAPTRAP co-hort, Desmond Devlin for MAD #403, March 2001. I made no secret to MAD art director Sam Viviano that I REALLY wanted to do a movie or TV show… READ MORE
December 13th, 2020 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Could you always do whatever you wanted with MAD? Did you ever get suits threatened by some of the content holders for going too far? How often did the editor/publisher tell you to pull back on the content? I certainly could NOT to whatever I wanted with MAD, although I seldom had any gags or ideas I wanted to do cut. This was not because the MAD editors would let anything fly, but more because I quickly understood what they would allow and what they would not. I didn’t “push the envelope” very often since what they would allow was quite enough to do… READ MORE
December 12th, 2020 | Posted in General
British actress Barbara Windsor passed away on Thursday. She was beloved by fans in the UK for her roles in the raunchy “Carry On” movie series, the BBC soap opera “Eastenders”, and for being married to notorious gangsters. That’s her on the bottom right of this “Carry On” movie poster spoof I did the art for that appeared in Viz. Incidentally, I just found out Viz is selling this poster as a print, if you are interested. READ MORE
December 11th, 2020 | Posted in General
Shameless Huckstering Department The holidays are almost upon us! If you are still looking for that perfect gift that says “I didn’t really want to spend money on you” look no father than my Studio Store, which is loaded with limited edition prints, not so limited edition prints, books, copies of MAD, and original art…all signed! Sometimes even by me! Here are some more samples: Just don’t look for too much longer, because the USPS are notoriously unreliable this time of year, and there’s only two week left until Christmas! READ MORE
December 10th, 2020 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
These are character designs I did for an animated show pitch back in 2009. It was a political parody sort of thing that did not get picked up. They all have their arms out like that because the animation people wanted then that way. I did full “turnarounds” on some others but these were just samples for the pitch. READ MORE
December 9th, 2020 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I’m taking a week off of my usual “Daily Coronacature” subject/caricature Wednesday. Instead, here’s a “Live Caricature” style drawing I did for my NYCC Virtual Artist’s Alley event of Sorrell Booke and James Best as Boss Hogg and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane from the 1980’s TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard.” READ MORE
December 8th, 2020 | Posted in General
If you are a backer of CLAPTRAP, Desmond Devlin and my book of movie parodies funded via Indiegogo, you will know that since the end of the initial funding part of the campaign we have been polling all backers at the “Doofus” level and higher as to their choices for finalists for three of the last four parody subjects in the book. That’s right! If you backed us as a “Doofus” or higher YOU got to nominate films as subjects, and then you will get to vote to choose three that we will skewer in the book. Well, the nominations are in, and the results… READ MORE
