Tom's Mad Blog
December 13th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Many of the most popular sitcoms in the 1970’s seemed to be dominated by large, ensemble casts in shows that were set in one room or environment. Our last few “Sketch o’the Week” caricatures were good examples of that trend. This week’s is another. “Taxi” is found on almost any list of the best sitcoms ever, and given it won 18 Emmys over its five season run that’s hardly unexpected. Its cast featured the early work of actors who would go on to become household names like Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd, Carol Kane, Marilu Henner and Judd Hirsch. Jeff Conaway was already a pretty well known… READ MORE
December 12th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I know what you are thinking… Tom forgot about his “Monday MADness” post this week, and you are doubtless rejoicing that you are not to be subjected to yet another look back in the archives of my work for MAD Magazine. Well, I didn’t and you are! Time and family circumstances just delayed our usual MAD flashback foolishness. This week we are back to the stuff I did for the actual magazine with yet another Hunger Games movie spoof. This time my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and I spoof BOTH Parts 1 and 2 of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” in one fell swoop… mostly because… READ MORE
December 6th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
If you were a TV Network executive and someone came to you and said “We want to produce a TV comedy set in a mobile surgical camp in South Korea during the Korean War”, would you think that was a good idea? How about if they said it would go on to become one of the most successful and acclaimed TV shows ever and run for 11 seasons? M*A*S*H was all those things. The show ran for 8 more years than the actual Korean War, was nominated for 100 Emmys (winning 14), and the series finale that aired on Feb 28, 1983 set a record… READ MORE
December 4th, 2023 | Posted in General
Welcome good citizens to another Moronic Monday of Mayhem as we look back at my work for MAD Magazine! We are actually going to take another break from work for actual issues of the magazine with yet another side project I did at this point in our chronological crawl, being spring 2016. The MAD folks came up with an idea to do a series of parodies of children’s books set in the world of DC comics superheroes (spoiler: MAD is owned by DC!) They asked me to do the art for the first book, a spoof of Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd‘s classic Goodnight… READ MORE
November 29th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Drawing to drawing, up and down the dial! We continue our classic sitcom series, 1970’s era, with one I’ve been saving to do until Thanksgiving. Here’s the cast of “WKRP in Cincinnati”… Top: Gordon Jump, Gary Sandy, Frank Bonner, Tim Reid, Bottom: Jan Smithers, Richard Sanders, Howard Hessman and Loni Anderson. “WKRP In Cincinnati” was one of those shows that combined great writing and a prefect cast to create something really special. It only lasted four four season, mostly thanks to CBS’s stupidity in moving it around different times lots and putting it in a “family friendly” time which did not allow for the kind of humor its characters… READ MORE
November 27th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Monday MADness is here again, but this week we have a look at a side project for the MAD gang I did in 2016 that was published between MAD #537 and #538. These publications were called “Bookazines” and were 96-ish page square bound “specials” usually billed as “Special Collector’s Editions”, and contained reprinted material around some theme. This one was entitled “MAD Presents Oscar Winners (and Losers!)”, and mostly contained movie spoofs of Oscar winning movies plus a smattering of other movie related features. I got the cover assignment, which I suspect was a bit of a trial run for a “real” cover assignment that… READ MORE
November 23rd, 2023 | Posted in General
I’ve been posting this sketch on Thanksgiving for about 15 years now. I’d do a new one but I’m too busy today eating one of his pals and spending time with family. Happy Thanksgiving! READ MORE
November 22nd, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, so I thought I’d share some JFK caricatures and art I’ve done over the years. The above sketch was part of a series I did in 2015 of all the U.S. Presidents. What did I do them for, you ask? As part of a centerpiece arrangement for the 2015 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award Banquet, held that year in Washington DC. It was my final Reubens as NCS president, and The Lovely Anna did the centerpieces. She popped her head into my studio one day and said “I need you to… READ MORE
