Tom's Mad Blog
April 27th, 2021 | Posted in News
I’ll be doing a live interview tonight at 8:00 pm EDT (7:00 Minnesota time) with comic book artist extraordinaire (and fellow National Cartoonist Society member) Graham Nolan on his YouTube channel “The Storytellers”. We’ll be talking about MAD, caricature, CLAPTRAP, influences, comics, and other stuff. Graham asks great questions and also takes questions from viewers, so drop by and sit back and watch, or jump in with some questions! READ MORE
April 26th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s yet another thrilling episode of the excruciatingly dull chronological crawl through my work in MAD, featuring my art for the two pager “A MAD Peek Behind the Scenes on the Set of The Hulk.” This piece was written by “MAD‘s MADdest Writer” Dick DeBartolo and “Slightly Disturbed MAD Editor” Greg Leitman. It appeared in MAD #431, July 2003. I did several of these “MAD Peek Behind the Scenes on the Set of…” features, and they were all pretty much the same overhead shot looking down on the set of a TV show or movie with caricatures of the cast as well as set workers,… READ MORE
April 25th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How do go about drawing certain poses? Do you take photos of yourself, ask someone to pose for you? Use an artist model figure or just make it up? Or a mixture of the above? A: Generally speaking I will attempt to draw a figure, pose, hand, whatever, just out of my head first. That works most of the time, especially for smaller figures in say a movie parody panel. When things needs to be particularly detailed, say for a cover or a full page illustration, or it’s a rather difficult or awkward pose, I’ll take some photos. There are also times when whatever… READ MORE
April 23rd, 2021 | Posted in News
A few comic book conventions are tentatively peeking their heads out of the foxhole and making plans to take place in person in 2021. ReedPop, the company that puts on several big conventions, just opened Artist’s Alley applications to creators for their shows in 2021. I just applied for both New York Comic Con in October and C2E2 in Chicago in December. I will not be able to do the San Diego Comic Con “Special Edition” in November or Emerald City Comic Con in December. I think it’s pretty certain these events will take place, but what they look like compared to previous years is… READ MORE
April 22nd, 2021 | Posted in Illustration Throwback Thursday
I did this two page spread for Sports Illustrated Kids back in 2011. It was a goofy, fun feature where (then) current NBA players had their own mall with gag stores, etc. I can’t find any tearsheets so I do not know who the writer was. READ MORE
April 21st, 2021 | Posted in General
I am taking the month of April off of doing a “Sketch o’the Week”. Instead on Wednesdays I’m posting one of the commission pieces I have done from my “Virtual Artist’s Alley”‘ event late last month. This is another of the “Mock MAD Cover” commissions I did. Always fun to draw my pal Svengoolie! Brush pen and Copic markers on 9×12 bristol. READ MORE
April 20th, 2021 | Posted in News
Des did the honors in our regular Tuesday CLAPTRAP update today, announcing the twelfth and final movie parody for our upcoming book CLAPTRAP… we added a Christmas film! That’s right, the original “Die Hard” was never spoofed in MAD, and we’re going to give it the business in our book! That makes our full list the following: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker The Shawshank Redemption Psycho Goodfellas The Big Lebowski Toy Story 4 Unforgiven Blade Runner The Blues Brothers The Princess Bride Citizen Kane Die Hard Phew. I’d better get back to work! Remember, you can always pre-order your copy here, and don’t forget… READ MORE
April 19th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s another installment of our ridiculous chronological crawl through my work in MAD! We return to the world of superhero movie spoofs with this parody of the film “X2”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and appearing in MAD #430, June 2003. The movie debuted in theaters on May 2, 2003, so we actually had the parody out BEFORE the film, since this issue was on news stand in mid April. Are we clairvoyant? Is Desmond a Time Lord? Did we use MAD Magazine’s tremendous clout in the world of entertainment to see an advanced release of the film? Nope, nope, and MAD has… READ MORE
