Tom's Mad Blog
January 17th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Considering more than a few of the classic 1970’s sitcoms I have been/will be drawing the casts of were created/produced by the man, I had to draw legendary television producer and screenwriter Norman Lear, who just recently passed away at age 101. It seemed like when you were watching a sitcom in the 1970’s, Norman Lear’s name was listed in the credits more often than not. The man was a true television legend, having produced, wrote, created, or developed over 100 TV shows, a number of which are considered among the greatest of their genre. “All in the Family”, “Sanford and Son”, “Maude”, “Good Times”, “The… READ MORE
January 16th, 2024 | Posted in News
In a few months this blog will see its 18th anniversary. In all that time I have never gone 15 days without a post here. In fact I’ve never gone a full week without a post here. That just happened. My last post was Jan 1st, and here it is Jan 16th. In a partial defense on my part, a few years ago I switched my focus to my weekly newsletter “The Ink Stained Wretch” (which, incidentally, you should be subscribed to) so I only do two or three posts a week anyway, but over two weeks without a post is unprecedented. So, my apologies.… READ MORE
January 1st, 2024 | Posted in News
Welcome to 2024! We are definitely starting the New Year out right by FINALLY reaching the end of a three year journey. Tomorrow morning I am renting a truck and going to a local loading dock where the bulk shipment of fellow MAD man Desmond Devlin and my hardcover book of movie parodies CLAPTRAP is being delivered. Frustratingly, it took our printer 15 weeks to get these books to us, but they are finally arriving and shipping will begin tomorrow. Des is flying into Minnesota later in the week and we’ll be doing the signed copies then, but all orders should be on the way… READ MORE
December 18th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s another grody Monday, dudes and dudettes! That means it’s time for a totally tubular trip down the gnarly path that was my work for MAD Magazine. As if! This week we take another rad side trip from the magazine itself to look at my second “bookazine” cover, this one for the “MAD Spoof’s the 80’s: Special Collector’s Edition (Spring 2016)”, which is a fancy title for “here’s a bunch of reprinted stuff from about 30 years ago we’d like you to pay to read again.” Wait, that’s kind of MAD’s current business model, isn’t it? Gag me with a spoon. Not much to really… READ MORE
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
