Tom's Mad Blog
April 25th, 2022 | Posted in General
It’s Monday again, and that means another riveting episode in our rampaging romp through my work at MAD magazine! This week we take look at another of MAD’s odd forages into advertising. In 2007 and 2008 MAD did some unique advertising inserts which were put into many of DC’s comic books as well as MAD itself. These consisted of a kind of “Mini-MAD” which centered around a subject that was the product which was being promoted. These were done very tongue in cheek, and the subject matter needed to fit with the MAD format. The first one was for Ballpark Franks which appeared in MAD… READ MORE
April 20th, 2022 | Posted in General
This week’s subject is emo-Bruce Wayne himself… Robert Pattinson. I actually did like “The Batman” quite a bit. However I found this joke on twitter pretty funny: “Robert Pattinson is the worst vampire ever. It took him over 14 years to turn into a bat.” READ MORE
April 18th, 2022 | Posted in General
It’s Monday already? We leave the gun but take the cannoli with this week’s peek at yet another whack job of a piece I did for MAD Magazine. This was part of “The MAD List of 20 Dumbest People, Events and Things” of 2007., entitled “Alternate Sopranos Endings that Would Have Been Better”. This appeared in MAD #485, Jan 2008. There is no writer’s credit so it was written by the MAD staff. I remember watching the Sopranos series finale with The Lovely Anna in our basement home theater. This was back in the days where TV shows aired on a certain day of the… READ MORE
April 13th, 2022 | Posted in General
The sketch I did of Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer a few weeks ago got a lot of love when I shared it on my blog and socials last week, so I decided to draw another of the “Little Rascals” stars this week… George “Spanky” McFarland! Spanky was another of the superstars of the Hal Roach “Our Gang” series, maybe the biggest of them even counting Switzer. Both were adept at stealing scenes and had a lot of onscreen charisma. In fact legend has it their fathers were constantly at odds over the star billing and screen time of the two actors. McFarland was from Texas, but there is a local connection… READ MORE
April 11th, 2022 | Posted in General
Get out your credit cards folks! American television producers can’t tell the shows from the advertisements in this week’s episode of our relentless run through my work for MAD Magazine. Believe it or not, there was a time when TV creators actually thought a television show based on characters from a series of insurance commercials was a GOOD IDEA. The folks at MAD did not agree. Thus, we had this three page farce called “When Other Advertising Characters Get TV Shows”, written by Scott Maiko and appearing in MAD #483, November 2007… Whoops. Apparently back in 2007 the “R” word was still acceptable to use.… READ MORE
April 6th, 2022 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
I’ve done a few caricatures of Prince but I haven’t drawn him in his 80’s “Purple Rain” era look since, well, the 80’s. I was reminded of the time I “sort of” met him the other night and that inspired me to make him this week’s subject and to tell that story. Everyone who has lived in the Twin Cities long enough probably has a Prince story. He wasn’t exactly a hermit but you probably would not run into him at Wal-Mart, either. Still, if you frequented any clubs with live music you’d have a good chance of spotting him every once and awhile. Back in the… READ MORE
April 4th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s F#%*ing monday already??!? It’s time to make you another offer you can’t refuse! This parody just fell off the back of a truck! Fuggedaboutit! Our hit job this week is a mash up style parody of “America’s Top Model” and “The Sopranos” entitled “America’s Top Mobster.” Written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #482, Oct 2007. If I remember right, I had to do this piece in about 2 weeks, and some of the time I was travelling, so this was a seriously rushed job, which probably explains the preponderance of monochrome coloring. I suspect I colored this whole… READ MORE
March 30th, 2022 | Posted in General
I try and cheer up sleepy Jean with this week’s subject: Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Mike Nesmith of the 1960’s band “The Monkees”. I never really got into The Monkees. They had a couple of really catchy hits but for some reason their TV show never aired when I was a kid watching TV. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen an episode. Some fun faces to draw, though. READ MORE
