Tom's Mad Blog
October 22nd, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I just got back from attending the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Bowness-on-Windemere in the United Kingdom. I brought a stack of MAD‘s 70th Anniversray issue (no. 28) to sign after doing a talk, and brought the leftovers home. So, I have a few to offer for a ridiculously inflated price in the Studio Store! I’ll even deface it with my signature! MAD #28 features 20 pages of new content, including Desmond Devlin and my spoof of the film “The Batman”. Get them while they last… READ MORE
October 19th, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Who loves ya, baby? We continue with our series of caricatures of famous TV detectives with the guy who made bald cool again, Telly Savalas as “Lt. Theo Kojak” from “Kojak”. I have to admit I’ve only seen snippets of scenes from this show, but the character is one of the icons of television detective dramas. Plus he’s bald!! READ MORE
October 18th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We’re going to take a break from the seemingly endless monotony of the weekly look back at my work from MAD and share something I wrote for my newsletter “The Ink Stained Wretch” (which you should be subscribed to!). Last week we took a peek behind the curtain of how MAD movie parodies were done “back in the day” as far as obtaining references from the films before we all had instant access to thousands of images with a few keystrokes. I’ll be the first to admit that my job doing movie and TV parodies is a lot easier today than when Mort Drucker, Jack Davis,… READ MORE
October 13th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Back in 2019 MAD stopped publishing original content (mostly), and I thought I had perhaps done my last movie/TV parody for the magazine. Prior to that I had pretty freely sold my original MAD artwork, both here on the website and at Comic Cons. It occurred to me after the “no new material” announcement that I wasn’t going to be making any more of these for MAD, so I basically stopped selling my originals. I thought it best to hang on to them. That said I thought it was time to make some of these originals available for sale, and as subscribers you all get a first look at what’s… READ MORE
October 12th, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Here’s another in our series of TV detective sketches, James Garner as “Jim Rockford” from “The Rockford Files”. This one I remember well from watching as it aired on TV, as my parents never missed the show. James Garner was terrific as the lead, and his character was very atypical as a TV private detective. Unlike the usual trope of the tough guy who would take on multiple bad guys often, Rockford tried to avoid physical fights and preferred to talk his way out of trouble (although if necessary he was plenty capable with his fists). He played the role with a charisma and everyman charm that… READ MORE
October 10th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
There’s no place like Monday! There’s no place like Monday! It’s time for another trip over the rainbow with another look back at my work for MAD. Today we drop in on one of the most unique pieces I ever did for the magazine. Is it a movie parody? Yes.. sort of. Is it a political piece? Yes, definitely. Does it contain a ridiculous number of caricatures of political reporters, commentators and satirists? That would be a big “you betcha”. We are not in Kansas anymore! Desmond Devlin wrote this six pager called “The Wizard of O” for MAD #505, Oct 2010. This was a… READ MORE
October 5th, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I had a lot of fun drawing Peter Falk last week and I thought a series of caricatures of famous TV detectives, both the professional and amateur type, would be fun as well. So, the second subject in our series of sleuths is Angela Lansbury, who starred in the long running and immensely popular show “Murder, She Wrote” back in the 80’s/90’s. Despite being a huge ratings hit, running for 12 seasons, AND being nominated for an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama series a record TWELVE times (one for each season), she never won one… which is also a record. She did better with the Golden Globes,… READ MORE
October 4th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I haven’t done one of these for two years because… why ? MAD is almost all reprinted classic material these days. Not this issue, though! There are a number of new pieces in MAD #28 (aka MAD #578, Dec 2022) to celebrate the magazine’s 70th anniversary! This issue officially released today, and while MAD is usually only available by subscription and in comic book shops, this issue is available at Barnes & Noble. Cover: Mark Fredrickson, Suzy Hutchinson (writer) Weird Al Loves Wacky Jaffee- “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Plain Ed” Steckley MAD Reader– Harvey Kurtzman, Basil Wolverton (MAD #11, May 1954) The MAD “Effluent Society” Pollution… READ MORE
