Tom's Mad Blog
January 25th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We continue our Monday MADness chronological crawl through my work for MAD (henceforth titled “MADness #xx) with a look at my 10th appearance in the magazine. Remember the early 2000’s TV show “Boston Public”? Neither does anybody else. Although it was a critically acclaimed show at the time, particularly for its diverse cast. It was big enough that MAD did a spoof of it. Once again I teamed up with my CLAPTRAP partner Desmond Devlin to poke some fun at this show in MAD #412, January 2002. This parody was the first time I drew someone I knew into the art, something I would do… READ MORE
January 24th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I am somewhat surprised by the fact (as of right now), there are no superhero movies in your upcoming CLAPTRAP book. Don’t get me wrong, I love superhero movies and I don’t want to sway you guys in anyway, I’m just somewhat surprised. Any reason why not? A: In case anyone reading this is new to my blog, MAD writer Desmond Devlin and I successfully crowdfunded a book of traditional styles movie parodies we call CLAPTRAP, which we are diligently working on for release later this year. So far 11 of the 12 movies we are spoofing have been revealed, with one still to… READ MORE
January 22nd, 2021 | Posted in General
One thing I’ve never done much of is animation work. I have done some art that was used in some animated shows and films, like the stuff I did for the MAD show on Cartoon Network and for some segments in a couple of smaller films and other projects, but that’s about it. Last month I posted a couple of caricature designs I did for a political 3D animated project, and some people wanted to see the full turnarounds rather than just the single designs. I don’t have all of those saved, but here’s a few of them with the complete 360 views (clicky to… READ MORE
January 21st, 2021 | Posted in Presidential Caricatures
Back in early 2015 I was in my final few months as president of the National Cartoonists Society, and planning my last “Reuben Award Weekend” to take place in Washington DC in May. The Lovely Anna was in charge of the decor at the big awards dinner (actually she was in charge of everything but I enjoyed pretending to be doing something) and at her command request I did a series of black and white pencil sketch caricatures of all 44 U.S. Presidents for centerpieces for the banquet, George Washington was Table #1, etc.. They were small at about 4 x 6. and the originals… READ MORE
January 20th, 2021 | Posted in Daily Coronacature
Here’s my Orson Welles for today’s “The Daily Coronacature”. I was sorely tempted to draw an older Welles because his face was a lot more fun later in his life, between the beard and the long combed back hair, etc. But, I needed to do one from his “Citizen Kane” era for the CLAPTRAP sketches I’ll be doing in those books going to “Schmendrick” level backers and higher. BTW there are still 15 of those Schmendrick original-sketch-in-the-book backer levels left. I do a sketch like the one you see above from the movie of your choice from the book! This original is also available in… READ MORE
January 19th, 2021 | Posted in General
My team the Green Bay Packers are back in the NFC Title Game this weekend against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers! Could not resist whipping this up today. It’s an update of an old drawing I did for some client or another ages ago. Hoping for a better result than last year’s NFC Title Game against the 49er’s. We will see. GO PACK GO! READ MORE
January 18th, 2021 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We continue our Monday MADness chronological crawl through my work for MAD with a look at my ninth piece for the magazine, a two page article called “The Mysterious Mysteries of Televised Sports”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin for MAD #412, Dec 2001. If you have been following along on Mondays, you may be noticing a trend here. Of the nine features I had so far illustrated for MAD, seven of them were written by Des. Some say it’s because no one else wanted to work on his lame scripts, but I suspect it’s because the guy was so prolific there was just a lot of… READ MORE
January 17th, 2021 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’ve been enjoying your posting your early MAD work lately, but I’m wondering if you are ever hesitant to share some of your really early art? I have seen you be very critical of your earlier work, so it’s a little surprising you are so willing to share it. Just wondering. A: Basically by the time I started working for MAD, I had reached a decent level of professionalism so I do not find any of it actively embarrassing. Sharing that stuff is no problem. However I am am still critical of it and see a lot of room for improvement in what I… READ MORE
