Tom's Mad Blog
September 17th, 2021 | Posted in General
Some months ago Quentin Tarantino released a novelized version of his film “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”, and it was just announced that there is a deluxe hardcover version coming out in November that will include a bunch of extra goodies… including the second parody Andrew Secunda and I did of the fictional “Bounty Law” TV show for a mini-MAD that was exclusive to the “Collector’s Edition Ultra HD Blu-Ray” of the film. That mini-MAD was pretty hard to come by, but I would think this hardcover book will be easy to get. If you didn’t get the Blu-Ray exclusive one, here’s your chance… READ MORE
September 16th, 2021 | Posted in Stuff from my Studio
These days having a replica of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber from “A New Hope” is probably no big deal. They are likely a dime a dozen. This one is at least a little special. It was the first Lucasfilm authorized limited edition prop replica ever created for collectors. It was produced by a company called ICONS, which created and marketed a number of authenticated and authorized prop replicas from Star Wars and other movies and TV Shows like “Terminator”, “Xena”, etc. ICONS went out of business in 2000, and a company called Master Replicas took over the Lucasfilm licensing for prop replicas. I got this in… READ MORE
September 15th, 2021 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
This week’s subjects is rocker Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame. As always, the original is available in the Studio Store. READ MORE
September 14th, 2021 | Posted in General
As promised, here’s the cover of Des Devlin and my upcoming book, CLAPTRAP. Like the rest of the book, this was a collaborative effort. The concept was mine but Des contributed a good number of the gags (okay, he wrote all the funny ones). This is a “wraparound” cover so I had to consider the spine and fold areas in the center when doing the composition. This was a nice breather from doing the interiors, but it’s back to that tomorrow! READ MORE
September 13th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
You don’t have to be a psychic to know that today is Monday, and it’s time for another look back at my work for MAD Magazine. Today we part the mists of the paranormal with a look at MAD‘s spoof of the TV show “Medium”, first appearing in MAD #454, June 2005, written by Dick DeBartolo. The show starred Patricia Arquette, Jake Webber and Miguel Sandoval. I’ve always like this splash page. I had a lot of fun with the lighting using two opposing light sources of very different colors. I also liked how the sleeping dog turned out. Patricia Arquette’s feet?… not so much. Take a look at the intro… READ MORE
September 12th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you ever create non-cartoon/caricature drawings such as portraits or landscapes? If so, how do you manage to shift gears so drastically? A: Very seldom these days. The art college I went to had no cartooning classes. Occasionally in one of my illustration classes I would be able to get away with doing a cartoon image for a certain project, but that was mostly frowned upon. I was trained in classic drawing and painting instead. This actually helped my cartooning (in my opinion) as it forced me to develop my drawing skills, and when I then turned back to cartooning I think my skills… READ MORE
September 10th, 2021 | Posted in General
I took this picture (and maaaaaaybe did a little photoshop work on it) years ago as part of a gag for a presentation I was doing on cartooning. Then I posted it on my blog. It’s become a frequently used meme image and not a week goes by without someone sending me an email saying they saw it on Reddit or Facebook or wherever and did I know someone was using it? Yes, I do. Can I do anything about it? No, I can’t. It’s out there and there is no reeling it back in. I think if I had a dime for everytime someone… READ MORE
September 9th, 2021 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
Cartoon Network had an animated show called “MAD” that aired from 2010-2013. It was a kind of animated sketch comedy show that was only 11 minutes long, and consisted of all sorts of different styles of animation from flash based to traditional to claymation, etc. I contributed to a number of episodes, usually working on some kind of TV or movie “mash-up”… like this one! This segment mashed up “The Big Bang Theory” with “Twilight” in a bit called “The Big Fang Theory”. The work I did consisted of simplified caricatures of the different actors in character and sometimes some extras. Here are the character… READ MORE
