Tom's Mad Blog
May 16th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday AGAIN!?! It seems like this happens every week. In today’s installment of our incredibly tedious hike through the twisted trails that was my work for MAD Magazine, we have a look at a spoof of a TV show about a woman who forgets everything about herself… which is appropriate because no one remembers anything about this show! Actually it got high ratings its first season but was cancelled during its second season, but it wasn’t exactly ‘Friends”. “Slomantha, Who Cares?” was written by MAD‘s MADdest Writer Dick DeBartolo and was first published in MAD #489, May 2008. This is another job where I… READ MORE
May 11th, 2022 | Posted in Classic Rock Sketch Series
“Welcome to the Sketchbook, we got fun and games!” This week’s sketch subject is “Guns’n’Roses” frontman Axl Rose! “Appetite for Destruction” was released right in the middle of my time in art college, and got played relentlessly during a lot of all nighters when I was trying to wrap up school projects. I never did see them live though. READ MORE
May 9th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday, and we aren’t monkeying around… or maybe we are! It’s time to go bananas as we swing into another feces-flinging look at my work for MAD Magazine. This week we peek at one of the oddest and most challenging jobs I ever did for MAD. “Meet the New Staff of MAD” appeared in MAD #488 also known as the “Monkey Issue”, and was written by Jeff Kruse. #488 was an “All Monkey Issue”, filled from front to back with gags about monkeys and apes. The issue even had a parody of the TV show “Monk” with Mort Drucker drawing a monkey instead of the lead… READ MORE
May 4th, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
The world lost a beloved comedic legend a few weeks ago with the passing of Gilbert Gottfried. I never met Gilbert but I know he was a big fan and friend of MAD Magazine. I have heard many stories of his coming into the New York MAD offices to visit with the staff and bum free copies of the magazine. His wonderful Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast was co-hosted by Frank Santopadre, who wrote numerous features for MAD for about 20 years. The outpouring of tributes for Gilbert demonstrated how loved and respected he was in the world of comedy. RIP. READ MORE
May 2nd, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
“Save the Cheerleader, Save the World?”… We were barely able to save this parody! It’s time for another episode of our relentless time-travelling trip through my work at MAD Magazine! This week we have a look at another TV parody, this time skewering the show “Heroes”. Written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin, this spoof first appeared in MAD #487, March 2008. My pencil roughs were truly “roughs” for this job. I was trying to attempt to spend less time with the comps and do more of the actual drawing things out on the final boards. As a result, I was reduced to labeling the… READ MORE
April 27th, 2022 | Posted in General
This week’s for real sketch is of folk rock legends Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel! READ MORE
April 26th, 2022 | Posted in General
You’re getting an extra Sketch o’the Week this week (I know… I know…big deal)! Here’s 80’s rock icon Pat Benatar! This one is still available for purchase in the Studio Store. READ MORE
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
