Tom's Mad Blog
December 5th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: What is going to be your approach to the parody of “Toy Story 4” in the upcoming CLAPTRAP book? How do you “caricature” cartoon characters? And how will you fit in a caricature of a real human (backer) in a cartoon story? A: A timley question… I happen to be working on that very parody right now! I have done a few “Pixar” parodies for MAD in the pst, and I am taking a similar approach to the art in the spoof of “Toy Story 4” in CLAPTRAP. Essentially since the characters are all animated characters I do not seek to “caricature” them in… READ MORE
December 2nd, 2021 | Posted in News
Looking for something completely unique and scarce to get that caricature artist in your family? I’ve got three spots left in the only in-person caricature workshop scheduled for 2022, taking place Jan 22-23rd in Riverside CA. It’s a full weekend of learning and drawing with me in a class of only 12 students. Once it’s full, it’s full! READ MORE
December 1st, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
MAD finally officially released this so I can share it here. The cover art for MAD #23, gag by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin. Des and I also did a two page Batman related piece inside this issue. MAD #23 will be available in comic books shops on Tuesday, Dec 7th. READ MORE
December 1st, 2021 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s caricature sketch subject is Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum! The original of this is still available and just got added to the Studio Store. Thanks to subscriber Kevin Halstead for suggesting this one. Remember, if you want to suggest future sketch subjects all you need to do is subscribe to my free weekly newsletter “The Ink Stained Wretch!” See below! READ MORE
November 29th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Pay attention, class! We are taking a quick recess from our chronological review of my work in MAD magazine to have a lesson on some stuff I did for its all-too-brief sister publication, MAD KIDS. In late 2005, MAD started publishing a second magazine aimed at the grade school “Nickelodeon” market called MAD KIDS. It featured some reprinted content from the MAD archives that was often softed up for younger readers, but also had a lot of new content as well as puzzles and games. There were younger, kid versions of Alfred and Spy vs. Spy, and in general the humor was aimed at the… READ MORE
November 25th, 2021 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
I hope all who celebrate today are getting a chance to do so with their family, which is really what this holiday is all about. We’ll have a full household today, and that’s what I am thankful for. For a few years I did an annual “Thanksgiving” illustration for Sports Illustrated Kids which was a kind of roast of some of the notable stories and people of the year in sports. These are the images. Enjoy! READ MORE
November 24th, 2021 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s SotW subject is a young Daryl Hannah from her role in “Splash”! This subject was suggested to me by MAD superfan Adam Cooke. Thanks Adam! What’s that you say? You’d like to suggest a subject for a future Sketch o’the Week?!? Well, all you need to do is subscribe to my free weekly newsletter “The Ink Stained Wretch” (see below). Subscribers can email me with their suggestions, and then I draw them! Even better, subscribers see these sketches weeks before they end up getting posted here. This one is old news to subscribers of the ‘Wretch. To be fair, non-subscribers can also suggest… READ MORE
November 22nd, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Attention, class! Stop with the spitballs and paper airplanes, ya momsers! It’s Monday and time for another history lesson on the worst of MAD Magazine with a look at “35 Scholarly Reasons Why School Sucks!”, written by Jacob Lambert and drawn by me and the terrific Peter Bagge! I thought it was a cool concept with this feature to split the art duties between myself and Peter. He had just started having art in MAD about a year earlier, but was already very well known for his comic book Hate and other work. I did not see any of Peter’s art on this until I… READ MORE
