Monday MADness
April 3rd, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
We’ll take a short break from looking back at the work I did for MAD years ago to something new! MAD #31 comes out this week, and I did the cover for the issue. It’s been leaked online in various Facebook groups, so I guess I can share it online now. She didn’t take credit for it but MAD head honcho Suzy Hutchinson wrote this cover gag, and it’s a pretty good one. I always prefer “Alfred doing something” cover gags to “Alfred substitution” gags. It’s easy and lazy to just replace some actor in character with Alfred, and then make the other characters from… READ MORE
March 27th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
It’s Monday, and we have a license to be ill looking back at another piece of my work from MAD magazine. This week we spy out mini-parodies of not one, not two, but THREE James Bond films starring Daniel Craig in “Casebook: SPYFAIL- The Battle of the Bonds” from MAD #521, June 2013, written by my CLAPTRAP collaborator Desmond Devlin. These penciled pages are true “roughs” as I just drew blank heads (and made notes as to who is supposed to be who.. although some might say I should do that even with my finished caricatures) and everything is very sketchy, meaning I must have worked out… READ MORE
March 20th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Grab your tiara and Go Go Juice! It’s time for another installment of the train wreck that is our look back at my work for MAD Magazine! This week enter the year 2013 with this piece from MAD #520, “Honey Boo Boo’s Family Circus”, written by Frank Santopadre. I was initially thrilled to get this assignment for a two reasons. First, it wasn’t a movie or TV parody, and while I love doing those for MAD they are a ridiculous amount of work and it’s nice to have a change and do something different now and then. The second, and more relevant for me, was… READ MORE
March 13th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
For this week’s Monday MADness we are eschewing the usual blather in favor of some MAD birthday wishes! Today happens to be the birthday of not one but two of the best known members of MAD‘s “Usual Gang of Idiots”, artist and former art director Sam Viviano and a guy who needs no introduction, the great Al Jaffee. Sam turns 70, while Al is an unbelievable 102. Both of these gentlemen have been enormous influences on my work and career. Happy birthday, guys! READ MORE
March 6th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
On no! Monday again?!? It’s that same Bat-time to check on the same Bat-channel that is our look back at my work for MAD Magazine! This week we take a peek at what might be my favorite job I ever did for the magazine, MAD‘s parody of “The Dark Knight Rises”, written by Arnie Kogen and first appearing in MAD #519, February 2013. Why is this my favorite piece for MAD? Several reasons. For one, I’m a huge Batman fan and this was the last of the Christopher Nolan trilogy films, for which I got to do the art for all three. Also this might… READ MORE
February 20th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Fail to the Chief! It’s Monday again, which means it’s time to run another one of the jobs I did for MAD up the flagpole and give it a one fingered salute! This week we leave the world of multiple page, time consuming, research heavy, labor-intensive TV/movie parodies and get away with a really easy assignment… a two page spread that’s mostly the U.S. Flag! The best part about this job is I got paid the same page rate for this as for one of those crazy movie parody splash pages. Factoring in the time involved I went from earning about $3 per hour to… READ MORE
February 13th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
Here we go with another super-lame look back at my work for MAD Magazine. This week we go back to the endless well that is super-hero movies and revisit MAD‘s spoof of “The Avengers”, written by MAD‘s MADdest writer Dick Debartolo and first appearing in MAD #517, October 2012. If you are looking at these pencil roughs and thinking “these are a lot looser and sketchier than Tom’s usual pencils” you are not crazy. I was making a conscious effort at the time to keep the roughs to a minimum of detail and spend more time drawing things out on the boards, rather than wasting… READ MORE
January 30th, 2023 | Posted in MAD Magazine
If Monday’s seem like a bleak and barren wasteland of tedium seeming to stretch ahead forever, then this post fits right in! It’s time for another dystopian dive into the dreary dregs of drawing that was my work for MAD Magazine… and the odds are forever NOT in your favor! Yes, you are the tribute sentenced to having to look back at my artwork for MAD‘s spoof of the film “The Hunger Games”, written by my CLAPTRAP cohort Desmond Devlin and first appearing in MAD #515, June 2012. I don’t have a lot to say about this job other than I sort of liked the… READ MORE
