Tom's Mad Blog
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
March 28th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Pikachu, I choose YOU! Gotta catch ’em all with this week’s look at… oh wait. That’s Pokemon. WTH is “Yu-Gi-Oh” anyway? I didn’t have any idea in 2007 when I did this job, and I still don’t. But, that didn;t stop me from doing the art for “Celebrity Yu-Gi-Oh Cards”, written by Michael Arnold and appearing in MAD #481, June 2007. This appeared in the same issue as last week’s “Paris Hilton” one pager, making this the third time I had multiple pieces in a single issue of MAD. However this was the one and only time I worked with writer Michael Arnold, who is… READ MORE
March 23rd, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s subject is Carl Switzer AKA “Alfalfa” from the classic Hal Roach “Our Gang” (later known as “The Little Rascals”) shorts. While the series stretched from the early 1920’s to the mid 1940’s, with the kid actors obviously aging out and being replaced constantly, the era most people are familiar with was the late 1930’s, when Alfalfa, Spanky, Darla, Buckwheat, and Porky were prominent characters. These shorts were syndicated on TV when I was a kid in in the 70’s, and I watched them often after school. Switzer’s Alfalfa was probably the most popular of the characters to come out of the series, although several actors… READ MORE
March 21st, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday, and that means another trip to solitary confinement as we continue serving time on our sentence of having to look back at my twenty years of criminally contemptible work for MAD Magazine. This week we look at a one page feature called “Things Shouted out to Paris Hilton as She Left Prison”, which first appeared in MAD #481, Sept 2007. Everyone remembers when super-talented international superstar Paris Hilton was incarcerated in 2007 on trumped up charges by a corrupt and jealous L.A. Police Department, right? No? That’s okay, no one else does either. Nor cares. Actually Paris was arrested for a DUI and… READ MORE
