Tom's Mad Blog
May 10th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s another riveting episode of Tom’s Chronological MAD Career! This week’s installment is a look at another sports feature entitled “Without Sports…”, written by the late Barry Liebmann, and appearing in MAD #434, Oct 2003. This was one of only two pieces I worked on with Barry, the other in 2012. Barry sadly passed away in 2017 at the way too early age of 63. This piece is memorable for me for two reasons. First, I had a lot of fun including MAD patriarch Bill Gaines as “God” in the upper right corner. I am pretty sure doing that was my idea, but I don’t… READ MORE
May 9th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Do you have any favorite picks for covers of MAD Magazine? Or, perhaps a favorite piece of funny art done by another artist for a magazine not related to MAD? A: That’s an impossible question, since MAD has had so many different eras of covers. There was the Kurtzman comic book cover area, the Mingo/Freas Alfred gag era, the interior MAD artists do covers era, the “reboot” era, the Fredrickson era, and finally the Burbank era. Each of these had their own best moments. For most of the Mingo/Freas era, the covers involved a stand alone gag with Alfred. Some of the gags were… READ MORE
May 6th, 2021 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
I did this for the cover of a brochure for a scientific presentation or symposium or something like that back in 2013. I can’t remember all the details, but the digital file is still floating around on my hard drive! READ MORE
May 5th, 2021 | Posted in General
It’s serious crunch time on this corporate/advertising job that’s eaten my life for the last three weeks, so no posts for a day or two. If you are looking for something interesting to read, my CLAPTRAP co-conspirator Desmond Devlin has written his theories as to why MAD did not do spoofs of the 12 movies we are doing in the book. You can find that in the latest two updates on our Indiegogo page. READ MORE
May 3rd, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s another chapter in our ongoing saga of a look back at all my MAD work in chronological order. This week we have a peek at another movie parody, this time MAD‘s MADdest writer Dick Debartolo and I terminate “Terminator 3”. This spoof appeared in MAD #432, Aug 2003. This is a rare look at my final pencils for a splash page. It’s rare because I very seldom scan in the final pencils. When I post “pencils” here what you are really seeing are the “roughs”, or the initial sketched pages I scan and send to MAD for review. Those I do right on the… READ MORE
May 2nd, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have a question for you: Have your personal, political, or religious convictions ever prevented you from accepting a gig or gag? Or have you felt a need to interject and change things which don’t jibe well with your own ethical standpoints? I get that a job is a job, but when is enough enough? A: I have turned down a few jobs because I didn’t want to “go there”, but to be honest I have not been put into that position very often. When Penthouse hired me to do illustration work I immediately told the art director there I would not do any… READ MORE
April 30th, 2021 | Posted in General
I still have two spots available for my one and only scheduled 2021 caricature workshop! Grab your spot. READ MORE
April 29th, 2021 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
I got tired of typing out “Illustration Throwback Thursday”, so from now on the internets will be using the term “Thurowback”. You’re welcome. Back in November of 2015 My pal and fellow National Cartoonists Society member Jeff Knurek asked me to be the guest artist on his widely syndicated comic feature “The Jumble”. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was about to come out in theaters and Jeff thought doing something around that would be a fun and timely idea. This is what we came up with. Here’s a closer look at the art: READ MORE
