Tom's Mad Blog
February 1st, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
After last week’s sketch of Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams from the recent TV show “Wednesday”, I was waxing nostalgic about the original 60’s “The Addam’s Family” show. I really loved watching the reruns of that show on TV as a kid, which were a staple of after school TV along with “The Munsters”, “Gilligan’s Island” and a lot of other half hour sitcoms. So, I could not resist doing a sketch of the original TV Gomez and Morticia, John Astin and Carolyn Jones. That got me thinking it would be fun to do a series of caricatures from other TV shows I watched after school as a kid! Most… READ MORE
January 30th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
If Monday’s seem like a bleak and barren wasteland of tedium seeming to stretch ahead forever, then this post fits right in! It’s time for another dystopian dive into the dreary dregs of drawing that was my work for MAD Magazine… and the odds are forever NOT in your favor! Yes, you are the tribute sentenced to having to look back at my artwork for MAD‘s spoof of the film “The Hunger Games”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #515, June 2012. I don’t have a lot to say about this job other than I sort of liked the… READ MORE
January 25th, 2023 | Posted in General
The Lovely Anna and I finally watched the last of the new “Wednesday” show on Netflix staring the perfectly cast Jenna Ortega as the titular character. We enjoyed it quite a bit. Tim Burton did a great job reimagining Charles Addams‘s characters and world for the show. Those people who complain that the show was too dark and that Burton “didn’t understand the characters” are mistaking this as a reboot of the 60’s TV show. It’s not. “Wednesday” is based on original Charles Addams cartoons. Same source material as the 60’s show, but a different take. In fact, Burton was far more true to the characters and the cartoon vibe than… READ MORE
January 23rd, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s yet another Monday, and that means yet another big, fat look back at my work for MAD magazine. This week we go dough-nuts with a peek at MAD‘s parody of the heavy-duty sitcom “Mike & Molly”, written by Arnie Kogen and first appearing in MAD #514, April 2012. Very few jobs I was given by MAD made me unhappy, but this one did. I have to say I was not much of a fan of this show, or this spoof. Both were filled with a lot of cheap fat jokes, most of which come off as mean as opposed to funny. I tried to… READ MORE
January 18th, 2023 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
I was never much of a “Trekkie” back in the day, but I did appreciate Star Trek and loved the original series as well as “The Next Generation” TV shows. I recognized how much of an impact Star Trek had on Science Fiction as a genre, and the shows were entertaining as well as thought provoking. My favorite character was always Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy, played in the OS by DeForest Kelley. As an aside, most people know the often-repeated Captain Kirk line “Beam me up, Scotty!” Was never actually uttered in the series. Just a common misused “quote”. Well, the “Dammit, Jim… I’m a doctor… READ MORE
January 16th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
By Oa, It takes a lot of willpower to keep doing these lame looks back at my work for MAD Magazine, but Mondays are already the worst day of the week so let’s just roll with it. This week we have a peek at another “MAD’s 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things of…” the year, this time 2011. That was the year Charlie Sheen went crazy, getting booted off his hit TV show “Two and a Half Men” and raving about tiger blood, wizards, and “winning” while looking more and more like a crackhead. MAD took notice and he made the MAD 20 with this… READ MORE
January 13th, 2023 | Posted in General
I saw that Lisa Marie Presley passed away the other day, and I remembered this theme park sample I did of her back in 2003. The gag with Elvis rolling over in his grave was about his likely disapproval of her choice in husbands and not her career path. Anyway RIP Lisa Marie… 54 is too young to go. READ MORE
January 11th, 2023 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
This is one subject that is long overdue to be added to my “Classic Rock Stars” caricature sketch series, the great Carlos Santana! He’s been one of the greatest guitarists in rock for a long time, really ever since his band’s explosive performance at Woodstock, which took place when they were basically unknown in the U.S. and their debut album still unreleased. The band’s set was such a revelation that they were included in the Woodstock film and soundtrack album despite their unknown status amid a lineup of superstar headliners. Santana is regularly mentioned in any list of the world’s greatest guitarists. A true original. READ MORE
