Tom's Mad Blog
July 27th, 2021 | Posted in Stuff from my Studio
It’s another exciting episode of “Stuff from my Studio”! Today we look at a couple of mementos I was presented with for being a speaker at the “Walt Disney Toonfest” in Marceline, Mo, which I did in 2005 and again in 2009. The story of Walt Disney and the small town of Marceline, MO (pop about 2500, roughly 2 hours outside of Kansas City) is a fascinating one. The Disney family moved to Marceline from Chicago in 1906 when Walt was five, and spent 5 1/2 years there on a small farm before moving to Kansas City. Those were very important, formative years for the… READ MORE
July 26th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We continue our relentless crawl through my work at MAD Magazine with yet another Spider-Man movie parody… this time it’s “Spider-Man 2” again written by Dick DeBartolo and first appearing in MAD #446, October 2004. This particular parody is rare in that for some reason I scanned in ALL the final pencils and saved those files. Since I have no “roughs” from this job, I have to assume I skipped that step and went right to the final pencils to show MAD for approval. I don’t remember why, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I’ll post the full pencils after the regular… READ MORE
July 25th, 2021 | Posted in General
Q: Hi Tom, hope all is well with you. I love reading your Sunday Mailbags. Thank you for sharing with us. I have a question. To tell you a little about myself, I am 46 years old. I have depression (genetic). I have tried all coping tools such as medications or therapy. Unfortunately, they don’t work. I have always been interested in weightlifting but don’t know how to start. I am steering clear of the fitness centers. Was thinking about investing in the dumbbells and work out in my empty den. I know it’s a serious lifelong commitment. Would you be open to sharing any… READ MORE
July 22nd, 2021 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
This is a two page spread I did for the book Inside MAD back in 2013. It was just for the book and never appeared in the magazine. Inside MAD is a large book full of rarely seen reprints of MAD features as chosen by the Usual Gang of Idiots, as well as essays by a number of famous entertainers about how MAD influenced their careers. The introduction of the book is written by the comedy film writer, director and producer Judd Apatow. In his intro, he vehemently points out that MAD never has done a spoof of any of his movies or TV shows. Turn the page, and you see this. Written… READ MORE
July 21st, 2021 | Posted in Sketch O'The Week
One of the unfortunate things about that “History of the Sitcom” illustration I did for CNN earlier this month was that so many terrific and landmark shows were not included because we couldn’t include them all. Of course we only had so much room, and the CNN folks gave me a list of who they wanted me to draw. There were very few pre-60’s sitcoms represented. So, I thought I might draw a few of the characters from some shows that weren’t included but were certainly worthy. This is a big one… “The Dick Van Dyke Show”! Here’s Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke!… READ MORE
July 20th, 2021 | Posted in General
I’m sure most of the followers of my blog know about the crowdfunded book project longtime MAD scribe Desmond Devlin and I are working on. If you don’t, briefly it’s called CLAPTRAP, and it will be a hardcover book featuring twelve original movie parodies in the MAD tradition (with a few of our own twists) plus some other film related goodies. It’s projected to be well over 100 pages, was funded via Indiegogo, and was projected for a 4th quarter 2021 release. All of that is still 100% accurate except for the last part. We have been working hard to try and meet that “before… READ MORE
July 19th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
I know you have all been waiting with breathless abandon for us to resume our look back through my work for MAD Magazine! This week’s episode features the very FIRST parody where I used a Wacom Cintiq for the digital coloring. It was a spoof of the movie “Van Helsing” written by Dick DeBartolo and first appearing in MAD #445, Sept 2004. I have the pencil roughs for this one! I remember this assignment, particularly the splash page, because it was set up differently than a typical splash. There was a column of panels on the right that delved into the actual parody, leaving only… READ MORE
July 18th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Congrats of your artwork for the CNN series! I’ve seen it everywhere. How did CNN find you to do that job? In fact, what’s the most effective way you market yourself to clients today? A: Thanks! I have been very surprised at how much CNN has used the art I did. It’s been fun to see it so many places. I try to remember to ask clients where they found me, just so I can track what is the most effective way potential clients run across my work. In CNN’s case, it was via Instragram. The art director searched for hashtags like #caricature and… READ MORE
