Tom's Mad Blog
November 8th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday! That means it’s time to hit the hardwood and drive to the paint with another sports-centric job for MAD. This is one of those two page spreads made up of individual spot illustrations and an unwieldy, far too long and wordy title we all love to page right past as we look for Sergio‘s “A MAD Look At…” This one is called “The Good Points and Bad Points of the New NBA Dress Code”, written by Jeff Kruse and Nate Fakes and first appearing in MAD #462, Feb 2006. Not much to say about this piece other than it would prove to be… READ MORE
November 7th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’m a fan of the caricature and realistic paintings of Sebastian Kruger. It’s always puzzled me, though, as to how he acquires the rights to use the source photographs he does. I’m assuming it’s easier to use a photo for caricature since there is so much distortion that there is often no way to say what photo was used. In your case, you often use film images that can be obviously linked to an original photo while not looking exactly like it. Still, there is no other source for the iconic “Here’s Johnny,” Nicholson photo than “The Shining” so it’s obvious that even the… READ MORE
November 3rd, 2021 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This isn’t really a SotW, but a recent MAD cover commission. I am slowly working through the queue of commissions from the virtual end of my New York Comic Con appearance. This one is actually a more elaborate version of one I did back in March for a customer who wanted to add a mashup of Max Von Sydow‘s “Three Eyed Raven” character from “Game of Thrones” in with his knight from “The Seventh Seal”. I dried out three gray markers doing this one! READ MORE
November 1st, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Does that smell of peanuts, popcorn and animal feces mean the circus is in town? Sorry, no. It’s another Monday edition of our chronological crawl through my work at MAD Magazine… which at least accounts for the smell of feces. Today we have a look at my second “MAD 20″ piece for the magazine, this one about the terrible story of Terri Schiavo and the horrific political posturing and media frenzy that surrounded it. There is no writing credit on the feature, which means it was written by the editorial staff. Starting in 1999 (for the year 1998) MAD did a feature called “MAD‘s 20… READ MORE
October 31st, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I saw you make a snarky remark on Twitter about the “Inktober” online initiative and I’m wondering, why do you hate Inktober? It seems to me you should support something like that, being a cartoonist who works with traditional pen and ink a lot. A: You mean this tweet?: I have to admit I’ve been a bit of a smartass the last couple of years about Inktober, but I certainly do not hate it. I’ve made fun of it now and then mainly because I usually spend a hundred plus hours a month every month dipping pen nibs and brushes into ink doing inked art,… READ MORE
October 28th, 2021 | Posted in News
The National Cartoonists Society is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and as a birthday present they are doing a big auction of original cartoon art to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The auction started yesterday and runs through November 3rd. It features over 150 pieces of original art from a who’s who of pro cartoonists. From the NCS: The NCS has enlisted the help of Heritage Auctions, the industry leader in the field of comic and cartoon art, to conduct the auction. The auction will go live on Wednesday, October 27th and will close the following Wednesday, November 3rd. Lots may be previewed at http://comics.ha.com/. Images may not be available until… READ MORE
October 27th, 2021 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
If you recognize this one of the late Leslie Nielsen from my book The Mad Art of Caricature that’s because it’s in that book. I did do a new sketch for this week but subscribers to my “The Ink Stained Wretch” weekly newsletter see it first. I’m posting throwback SotWs for the next two weeks, and then the sketches I debuted for subscribers will get posted here. So subscribe, already! READ MORE
October 25th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday… AGAIN?!? Seems like this happens every single week! Well, it’s once again time for another pulse-pounding episode in our chronological crawl through my work at MAD Magazine. Today we take a look at MAD’s spoof of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, written by MAD’s MADdest Writer Dick Debartolo and first appearing in MAD 460, December 2005. I remember this splash page being a very tough one to “solve”, meaning to figure out how to lay it out with the word boxes working with the characters speaking them all within a single environment. The show always begins with the designers and contractors in their big… READ MORE
