Tom's Mad Blog
August 11th, 2023 | Posted in General
I just completed one of my workshops last weekend in Denver. We had a great group and a lot of fun drawing together for two days! Class artwork above. I just announced one final workshop for 2023, this one taking place Dec 2-3 in Las Vegas. You can register for a spot here. The Lovely Anna is having knee surgery in early 2024, so there will be a pause on my workshops from then until probably the late spring or early summer. I MIGHT be able to get one squeezed in in early January before Anna goes under the knife. We’ll see. People ask me… READ MORE
August 9th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! “Laverne and Shirley” was a huge hit as a spin off from the show “Happy Days”. Here’s my sketch of stars Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. The show was a favorite in the Richmond household and my parents and siblings and I used to watch it on Tuesday nights right after “Happy Days”. How ingrained into our pop culture psyche was this show? The hard drives on my wife’s computer are named “Laverne” and “Shirley”, and her backup drive is “The Big Ragoo”. Our daughter’s hard drives are named “Lenny” and “Squiggy”. I haven’t seen an episode in probably thirty years, but it made… READ MORE
August 2nd, 2023 | Posted in General
Everybody and their brother has posted a drawing of Paul Reubens AKA “Pee Wee Herman” since the news of his passing, but I could not do anyone else for the “Sketch o’the Week” this week. RIP. READ MORE
July 26th, 2023 | Posted in General
Last week MeTV horror movie show host extraordinaire Svengoolie revealed that I am one of this year’s “Artist Collection” artists doing an illustration for his show merchandise. The “Artist Collection” is a lineup of five artists from Svengoolie Fandom that each do a piece of art honoring the show and its ghoulish host. Last year’s lineup was stellar with Jim Engel, Bill Morrison, Mitch O’Connell, Scott Shaw, and Jill Thompson. So far this year they’ve announced Mark Spears and me. I was very honored to be asked to be part of this year’s group. The art you see above is my piece. As I say on my artist’s page on… READ MORE
July 26th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
We have to take a break from our sitcom sketch series in honor of the late Tony Bennett, who passed away last Friday at the age of 96. How can you not love Tony Bennett? He was an American Institution. A true legend of the entertainment world, he had multiple top ten albums spanning almost 60 years (“I left my Heart in San Francisco” in 1962 and “Love for sale” in 2021). Twenty Grammys. Lady Gaga loved him. What a legacy he left. RIP Mr. Bennett. READ MORE
July 24th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Not even San Diego Comic-Con can keep the moronic mess that is Monday MADness down (but it does delay it several hours). This week we look at the second piece I did that appeared in MAD #531, Feb 2015. I originally did the art on this one page gag piece for MAD back in 2014 for their website, turnaround time 14 hours. That was rare thing back then, but a precursor to the new MAD website where they did quick turnaround gag cartoons all the time. Writer uncredited, which means one of the staffers wrote it. MAD ended up printing this in issue #531. Here’s a look at the pencil (ok,… READ MORE
July 17th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Giddyup, cowboy! It’s MONDAY! Time for another rootin’, tootin’ look back at the steaming pile of cow $#!t that was my work for MAD Magazine! This week we wrap up 2014 with another piece from MAD’s annual “20 Dumbest People, Events, and Things” of the year. We clock in at number 14 with a rare fully digitally painted piece, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #531, Feb 2015. There’s not much to discuss here. This is a spoof of the movie poster for the Seth McFarlane film “A Million ways to Die in the West” ridiculing Cliven Bundy and… READ MORE
July 12th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
It’s the big one!!! I’m comin’, Elizabeth!! It’s back to the 1970’s with our sitcom series, this week featuring one of my all time favorites, Demond Wilson and Redd Foxx of “Sanford and Son”. I was surprised a few years ago to learn that “Sanford and Son” was not an original show, but an American remake of a British show called “Steptoe and Son” from the early 1960s. The BBC show was about a grumpy old man and his son who ran a struggling old junkyard/salvage business. “Sanford and Son” came about because of the success of another American sitcom that was adapted from a British show. “All in… READ MORE
