[msb-alumni] Mad magazine illustrator Mort Drucker dies at 91 on April 9, 2020
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 16:07:31 -0400
BlankMad magazine illustrator Mort Drucker dies at 91.
NEW YORK -- Mort Drucker, the Mad Magazine cartoonist who for decades lovingly
spoofed politicians, celebrities and popular culture, died Thursday at 91.
Drucker's
daughter, Laurie Bachner, told The Associated Press that he fell ill last week,
having difficulty walking and developing breathing problems. She did not give a
specific cause of death and said that he was not tested for the coronavirus. He
died
at his home in Woodbury, New York, with his wife of more than 70 years,
Barbara, by
his side.
"I think my father had the best life anyone could hope for," Bachner said. "He
was
married to the only woman he ever loved and got to make a living out of what he
loved
to do."
Mad magazine was a cultural institution for millions of baby boomers, and
Drucker was
an institution at Mad.
A New York City native, he joined Mad in its early days, the mid-1950s, and
remained
well into the 21st century. Few major events or public figures during that time
escaped Drucker's satire, whether Star Trek and The Godfather or Steve Martin
and
Jerry Seinfeld.
In large strokes, Drucker took in every crease, crevice and bold feature. The
big
jaws of Kirk Douglas and Jay Leno bulged even larger, while the ears of Barack
Obama
looked like wings about to take flight.
Being drawn by Drucker became a kind of show business right of passage, with
Michael
J. Fox once telling Johnny Carson that he knew he had made it when he appeared
in a
Drucker cartoon.
Drucker's admirers also included Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz and Star
Wars
filmmaker George Lucas, who in the 1970s wrote a fan letter to Mad even as his
lawyers were threatening to sue over a magazine caricature. (The suit was never
filed.)
Besides Mad, Drucker drew for Time magazine, DC Comics, for an ad campaign for
fruit
and vegetables and for the heavy metal band Anthrax, which commissioned him to
design
art for its State of Euphoria album. Some of Drucker's illustrations, include a
Time
cover drawing of Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong playing table tennis, ended up in
the
National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
In 2017, Drucker was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.
"As Mad Magazine became an established (albeit absurd) voice in the nation's
cultural
mainstream, many of the visual masters who showcased the magazine's written
content
eventually became icons in and of themselves," the Hall's citation reads.
Indeed, Mort Drucker proved to be one of the most popular artists of the group
that
collectively came to be known as the 'Usual Gang of Idiots.
******
Mort Drucker, 91, Gifted Caricaturist In Mad's 'Usual Gang of Idiots,' Dies. By
J.
Hoberman. His illustrations of celebrities for Mad magazine's movie and
television
satires inspired countless cartoonists. Actors, politicians and others knew
they had
made it when he drew them. Mort Drucker, a longtime contributor to Mad magazine
known
for his caricatures of actors, politicians and other celebrities, died on
Thursday at
his home in Woodbury, N.Y. He was 91.. His death was confirmed by his daughter
Laurie
Bachner. Mr. Drucker, who specialized in illustrating Mad's movie and
television
satires, inspired several generations of cartoonists. 'To me, he's the guy,'
the
caricaturist Drew Friedman said. 'I used to imitate his work in Mad when I was
a kid.
I wanted to be Mort Drucker; I even loved his name. Mr. Drucker's facility was
best
expressed in multi-caricature crowd scenes. His parody of the 1986 Woody Allen
film,
'Hannah and Her Sisters,' opened with a panel depicting a Thanksgiving dinner
that,
in addition to most of the movie's ensemble cast, included caricatures of Mr.
Allen's
first wife, Louise Lasser; the film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel; Mayor
Ed
Koch of New York; and Mad's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman. His drawing for a 1970
Time
magazine cover, 'Battle for the Senate,' now in the National Portrait Gallery,
featured a pileup of 15 individually characterized political figures, including
President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Mad's takeoff on
the
MGM retrospective feature 'That's Entertainment,' published in 1975, required
Mr.
Drucker to caricature more than two dozen stars. 'I think I've drawn almost
everyone
in Hollywood,' he told The New York Times in 2000. Some of Mr. Drucker's most
inventive works were double satires. The 1963 Mad piece 'East Side Story,'
written by
Frank Jacobs, is a parody of 'West Side Story' as played out by prominent
international figures. Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro and Charles de Gaulle
are
among the many world leaders drawn cavorting against photographed backdrops of
New
York City streets. 'It's a Blunderful Life,' written by Stan Hart and published
in
1996, updated 'It's a Wonderful Life' to star Richard Nixon as Bill Clinton's
guardian angel. A self-taught freelance cartoonist who had worked on war,
western,
science fiction and romance comic books as well as personality-driven titles
like The
Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and The Adventures of Bob Hope, Mr.
Drucker
came to Mad in late 1956, soon after Al Feldstein succeeded Harvey Kurtzman,
the
magazine's founder, as editor. Mad had run only occasional TV and movie
satires, but
Mr. Drucker's arrival 'changed everything,' the pop-culture critic Grady
Hendrix
wrote in a 2013 Film Comment appreciation of Mad's movie parodies. 'No one saw
Drucker's talent,' Mr. Hendrix wrote, until he illustrated 'The Night That
Perry
Masonmint Lost a Case,' a takeoff on the television courtroom drama 'Perry
Mason,' in
1959. It was then, Mr. Hendrix maintained, that 'the basic movie parody format
for
the next 44 years was born. From the early 1960s on, nearly every issue of Mad
included a movie parody, and before Mr. Ducker retired he had illustrated 238,
more
than half of them. The last one, 'The Chronic-Ills of Yawnia: Prince Thespian,'
appeared in 2008. Mr. Drucker compared his method to creating a movie
storyboard: 'I
become the 'camera,' he once said, 'and look for angles, lighting, close-ups,
wide
angles, long shots -- just as a director does to tell the story in the most
visually
interesting way he can. Mr. Hendrix called Mr. Drucker 'the cartoonist's
equivalent
of an actor's director' and 'a master of drawing hands, faces and body
language. Mr.
Friedman praised Mr. Drucker's restraint: 'He wasn't really hung up on
exaggerating.
He was far more subtle and nuanced -- interested in how people stood and so on.
Morris Drucker was born on March 22, 1929, in Brooklyn. His father, Edward, was
a
businessman who repaired jukeboxes and ran a bar, among other things. His
mother,
Sarah (Spielvogel) Drucker, was a homemaker. He attended Erasmus Hall High
School,
where he met his future wife, Barbara Hellerman. In addition to his daughter
Laurie,
he is survived by his wife; another daughter, Melanie Amsterdam; and three
grandchildren. Mr. Drucker began his professional career at 18 when,
recommended by
the cartoonist Will Eisner, a family friend, he got a job assisting on the
comic book
Debbie Dean, Career Girl. He also worked on a syndicated single-panel strip,
'The
Mountain Boys,' before finding steady work with National Periodical
Publications, now
known as DC Comics. He continued to freelance for DC even after joining Mad's
'usual
gang of idiots. Working in a studio at his home in Woodbury, on Long Island, he
also
drew magazine illustrations, album covers, movie posters and advertisements.
Mr.
Drucker was modest about his gifts. 'When I started working for Mad, they
assigned me
TV satires and asked me to draw famous people,' he recalled. 'So I just did it.
It
took me a long time to learn the skills I have, and it was time-consuming. With
me,
everything is trial and error. Mr. Drucker also illustrated children's books
and
contributed to the vogue for adult coloring books, collaborating with the
comedy
writer Paul Laikin on 'The JFK Coloring Book,' which sold hundreds of
thousands, if
not millions, of copies in 1962. Between 1984 and 1987, he collaborated on the
syndicated newspaper strip 'Benchley,' which revolved around a fictional
assistant to
President Ronald Reagan. Reagan, whom Mr. Drucker once caricatured as the
Godfather,
Moses, Scrooge and a slavering Mr. Hyde in a 1982 Mad story, 'Ronald Reagan --
Now
Starring at the White House,' written by Stan Hart, was evidently a fan of the
strip
and treated Mr. Drucker and his wife to a private tour of the White House.
(There
would be a Ronald Reagan coloring book as well.) In 2015, Mr. Drucker was the
first
winner of the National Society of Cartoonists' Medal of Honor for lifetime
achievement. In 2017, he was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of
Fame.
Mr. Drucker not only satirized popular culture; he also became a part of it.
Appearing on 'The Tonight Show' in 1985, the actor Michael J. Fox told Johnny
Carson
that he knew he had made it in show business 'when Mort Drucker drew my head.
The
director Joe Dante wrote that 'there are few thrills in life quite like seeing
your
own movie parodied in the pages of Mad. But not everyone was so pleased.
According to
Mr. Hendrix, Mad's 1981 parody of 'The Empire Strikes Back,' 'The Empire
Strikes
Out,' prompted the Lucasfilm legal department to send a cease-and-desist letter
demanding that the issue be recalled. 'Mad replied by sending a copy of another
letter they had received the previous month -- from George Lucas, offering to
buy the
original artwork for the 'Empire' parody and comparing Mort Drucker to Leonardo
da
Vinci. Mr. Lucas knew Mr. Drucker's work well. He had commissioned one of Mr.
Drucker's classic multicharacter pileups as the poster for his first hit,
'American
Graffiti' -- a nostalgic movie set in the same summer 'The JFK Coloring Book'
was a
best seller. And, of course, Mr. Drucker had illustrated Mad's sendup,
'American
Confetti.
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