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
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
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
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
Q: Knowing that “Chicken Fat” will eventually be in a satire you do, which comes first in the drawing process, the main characters or the chicken fat stuff? How do you determine how much space is needed for the chicken fat? A: For those who don’t know what the “Chicken Fat” our questioner is referring to is, here’s a definition: “Chicken Fat” is a term coined by Will Elder, one of MAD‘s original “Usual Gang of Idiots”, for the background gags and extra visual jokes stuffed into the panels of a MAD Magazine parody. It meant visual jokes and gags added for “extra flavor” to… READ MORE
Here’s another drawing from my “Virtual Artist’s Alley” event late last month, iconic bad guy actor Lee Van Cleef! This was one of the “Live Caricature Style” commissions, meaning it’s drawn in the same way and with the same graphite and blending stomp tools I use when I do live caricatures. For those who placed commission orders with me when I did that virtual Artist’s Alley last month, I’ll have to ask you for a little extra patience in waiting for your art. Right after I did that event I got slammed with multiple freelance jobs, with more rolling in. That means a lot of… READ MORE
Mental Floss posted this video about the history of MAD magazine a couple weeks ago. I’ve been meaning to link to it but I keep forgetting. Today I remembered. While it’s only 15 minutes, the video does a pretty good job of covering the origins of MAD. They are also more accurate about the details than many longer stories from bigger sources. Certainly they deserve kudos for getting the history right concerning MAD’s switch to a magazine format. So many other media stories about MAD assumes they switched to avoid the Comics Code Authority because it happened around the same time, when that was just… READ MORE
This is an interesting article about a lawsuit filed back in the 1980’s by the Anheuser-Busch beer company against the creators/publishers of a St. Louis based humor magazine very much in the MAD vien called Snicker. Snicker ran a parody ad on the back of one of their issues poking fun at Anheuser-Busch’s “Michelob Dry” beer ads with a “Michelob Oily” spoof ad. This was also a callout to a the 1988 Shell Oil Co. oil leak in Vienna, Missouri that sent millions of gallons of oil into a local river. The leak caused several Anheuser-Busch factories to have to halt production due to possible… READ MORE
Sign up for Tom's FREE newsletter:
