Tom's Mad Blog
March 7th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Wingagium Levigrossa! It’s Monday and that means another spellbinding look at my magically mediocre work for MAD Magazine. This week you are truly cursed with a gaze at MAD‘s spoof of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, written by my CLAPTRAP collaborator Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #480, August 2007. There were a total of eight “Harry Potter” films. Only the first seven were spoofed in MAD Magazine proper, although the last film was parodied and published in a special collector’s issue. I did the art for three of the eight movies, this being my second one. Mort Drucker did the… READ MORE
March 2nd, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
There’s something in the air tonight with our Sketch o’the Week! I did this one of drummer, singer, songwriter, former Genesis frontman and 80’s solo artist superstar Phil Collins right here in my Su-Sus-Studio! I didn’t know this but fellow caricaturist and pal Steve Hearn told me that the well known British cartoonist Clive Collins is Phil’s older brother! READ MORE
March 1st, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Today would have been Bill Gaines 100th birthday. I never got to meet him. He passed away June of 1992, 8 years before my first piece appeared in MAD. I was lucky to have gotten to work with so many people who were part of the Gaines era, but I’ll always feel I missed out on the full MAD experience because Bill never saw a single thing I ever drew. I’ve heard many stories about him from friends who knew him well and worked with him for decades. He was a giant in the world of comics and the industry would not be the same without him.… READ MORE
February 28th, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Hold it right there, brother! We’re taking you in for another bail jumping episode of our criminally inane rampage through my work at MAD Magazine. This week we have a look at MAD‘s spoof of the reality TV series “Dog the Bounty Hunter” that first appeared in MAD #478, June 2007 and was written by Dennis Snee. This was one of only two pieces I ever worked on with Dennis as the main writer. I call him “Dennis” even though I never met him because if I try calling him “Mr. Snee” I have to do it in a Captain Hook voice, and that gets… READ MORE
February 23rd, 2022 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
Sometimes you eat the sketch… and, wal, sometimes the sketch eats you. This week’s sketch subject is the eternally cool Sam Elliott. This original sketch is not available for sale because one of the subscribers from my newsletter “The Ink Stained Wretch” already bought it. That’s because subscribers see these sketches about two week before the rest of the interwebs do. That’s what you should subscribe to my free newsletter! This sketch would have really tied the room together! READ MORE
February 21st, 2022 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We interrupt this relentless crawl through my web of work for MAD Magazine to spin a tale of my first “cover” job for MAD… sort of. My next job for MAD was another for their short lived sister publication MAD KIDS, and was both the cover and an interior piece, both the old web head himself, Spider-Man for MAD KIDS #7, MAY 2007. MAD art director Sam Viviano warned me that a cover job would be a little different, and he was not kidding. Often when doing feature stuff the editors give the artists a lot of leeway to have fun and add something to the proceedings. They… READ MORE
February 18th, 2022 | Posted in General
Recently I’ve gotten a few inquiries as to what happened to my blog, which used to be updated daily and is now only a few times a week. Back in October I announced I was switching my focus from a daily blog to a weekly newsletter. That newsletter is called “The Ink Stained Wretch” and is free to subscribe to. It features an exclusive first look at my “Sketch o’the Week” (I post that same sketch on my blog a week or so later), articles on freelancing, illustration, cartooning, caricature, news from me, etc. etc. It’s delivered directly to your inbox and you can opt… READ MORE
February 16th, 2022 | Posted in General
I don’t want my weekly sketches to become a “this famous person just died” exercise, but people that had some importance to me keep croaking. Just a few weeks ago we lost actor Howard Hesseman, who was most famous for his role as veteran radio DJ “Dr. Johnny Fever” in the classic sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati”. WKRP was one of my favorite TV comedies back in the day. It only lasted four seasons, but what a four seasons it was. Brilliant writing and some of the best characters and casting in TV history. Hesseman was one of the best parts of the show. I had to… READ MORE
