Tom's Mad Blog
February 5th, 2024 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Happy Monday! Time to continue on with our excruciatingly slow crawl through the decades of my work at MAD Magazine. The force is definitely NOT with us this week as we look back again at MAD #439, June 2016. Why a second look? Because I did two things for this issue! Looking back, MAD #439 was a groundbreaker for me for two reasons. As I detailed in our last installment, it was the first time I got to do the art for the cover of a regular issue of MAD. The second reason was for another bucket list moment… doing the art for a parody of… READ MORE
February 1st, 2024 | Posted in General
CLAPTRAP now has its own mini-website! Visit claptrapbook.com for a peek inside the book and to order a copy! READ MORE
January 31st, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Hang on, Bernice… it’s Wednesday again! Time for another “Sketch o’the Week!”. Back when I was doing a sketch series of fictional TV detectives I only deviated from “serious” characters once… drawing Abe Vigoda as Sargent Philip K. Fish from “Barney Miller”. That show was another great example of a 70’s sitcom set almost entirely in one small room/set that relied on the writing and character interaction to provide stories and laughs. “Barney Miller” was one of the best examples of making that format work incredibly well. It was one of my favorite shows to watch in syndication back in the 80’s. So, this week… READ MORE
January 25th, 2024 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
We’re back to our usual “Sketch o’ the Week” insanity, and the continuation of our “classic TV sitcoms” theme. This week’s sketch is of the two main stars of “The Jeffersons”, Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford! “The Jeffersons” was a spin-off of “All in the Family”, and actually ran for more seasons (11) than “All in the Family” (9). It was ground breaking for being based on a black family that was portrayed as successful and wealthy, and for being the first TV series to prominently feature a married interracial couple. Norman Lear claimed in his autobiography that he got the idea to move the… READ MORE
January 22nd, 2024 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Yes… it’s the moment you have all been dreading! It’s the return that no one asked for of my Monday MADness retrospective of the work I did for MAD Magazine. If you’ll recall in our last episode we looked at MAD‘s spoof of “The Hunger Games: The Mocking Jay Parts 1 & 2” from MAD #538. Time to move on to MAD #539, June 2016, which featured my first ever actual MAD cover! Covers are rare birds for several reasons. First, at that time there were only six a year. Second, Covers are usually of the hyper-realistic style of art and as Mark Fredrickson is a master… READ MORE
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
