Tom's Mad Blog
June 12th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”– Bilbo Baggins. Truer words were never spoken, especially regarding this seemingly never ending slog through my work for MAD Magazine! Here’s we are… another Monday and another look back at a middling art job on another middle earth film parody. This time it’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #527, June 2014. I often use this splash page as an example of how… READ MORE
June 7th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Fresh Air! Times Square! Goofy caricature! We continue our sketch series of classic sitcoms with Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert from the 60’s series “Green Acres”. Much like the “fantastical gimmick” trend in sitcoms in the 60’s, there was a mini “rural” trend featuring three shows that all existed in the same world: “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Petticoat Junction” and “Green Acres”. You should probably include “The Andy Griffith Show” with that group as the original rural show, but there was never any crossover there. Petticoat Junction and Green Acres were actually created based on the success of The Beverly Hillbillies. Petticoat Junction and Green Acres were set in the… READ MORE
June 5th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Here we go with another ridiculous look back at my work for MAD magazine! We are entering 2014 in our little chronological trip, and this week we take a gray and dreary trudge through the dystopian world of “The Hunger Games” with MAD‘s spoof of the second film “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”, written by my CLAPTRAP collaborator Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #526, April 2014. I had some fun on this splash page. The scene called for the crowd to do the “three fingered salute” from the film that was a sign solidarity against the “Capitol” and support for the rebellious protagonist… READ MORE
June 1st, 2023 | Posted in General
My 2023 lineup of caricature workshops only have a handful of spots left! If you have been considering taking one of my weekend long classes, don’t wait too much longer! Minnesota and Orlando have been sold out for weeks. Denver had been sold out for weeks until this morning, when one spot opened up due to a cancellation and a depleted waitlist. There are a few spots left in Dublin and San Fransisco, but that’s it! Book a spot soon before they are all sold out: READ MORE
May 31st, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I have to admit I saw very few episodes of “F Troop” in syndication as a kid. It just wasn’t a show my local stations carried in the hours immediately after school when I watched TV. The few episodes I did see were mainly when I was home sick from school, and caught many old syndicated shows on during the day. My mom would put me in front of our TV on the couch, bundled up in blankets and sipping soup out of a thermos while she worked, and I’d veg out watching old shows. I remember F Troop being very reliant on slapstick/physical humor.… READ MORE
May 24th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
A very old joke… Ward and June Cleaver are at the breakfast table. “Ward?” “Yes, Dear?” “I think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night.” “Leave it to Beaver” was a show I sometimes watched after school, although it wasn’t often showing in syndication on my local channels. It’s a classic so I think it needed to be representing in our “Classic Sitcom” series. So, here’s a sketch of Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers as Wally and Beaver Cleaver. READ MORE
May 22nd, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday, and you know what that means! Yes, for most people it means you had to get up and go to work… but that’s the good news! The bad news is that it’s time for yet another sickening look back at my work for MAD Magazine. This week we have a peek at the second piece I had in MAD #525 (Feb 2014), a parody of the TV show “The Following”, written by the great Arnie Kogen. As I foreshadowed last week, with this particular assignment I tried something different I had never attempted before. So what was this experimental technique I tried, and why… READ MORE
May 17th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
When lift plus thrust is greater than load plus drag, anything can fly… even a ridiculous sketch like this! We continue our series of caricatures from classic sitcoms with Sally Field as Sister Bertrille AKA “The Flying Nun!” This was another of the run of shows in the 60’s that featured some kind of fantastical gimmick like witchcraft, genies, monsters, etc… in this case a young, 90 pound sister in a convent in Puerto Rico that can fly via strong winds and her starched coronet. Field famously hated the part and her experience doing the show. She was pregnant in the third and final season, and considered… READ MORE
