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Sad to learn that artist MORT DRUCKER, for many years (decades in fact) MAD's best movie and TV parody caricaturist, has passed away at the age of 91. No doubt there will be other bloggers who delve into far more detail about Mort's life and career, but for the moment, in pictorial tribute to him, here's one of my favourite film series parodies that he illustrated back in the early 1970s. Brilliance!
10 comments:
Sad news a genuine comic legend and one of my all time favourites I always marvel at the talent of many excellent artists but Morts ability to accurately represent so many TV, political and film etc stars always amazed me. I have never seen him produce anything other than top quality and fun art And he was a pretty good adventure artist as well .Not many of the Mad superstars left a rare bunch of idiots indeed
Yeah, the row of dominoes is falling, McS, and we're in line. S'funny, but we don't really consider ourselves as being in the queue for oblivion when we're younger, do we? But as we get older, the line in front of us gets smaller. Well, on that cheery note...
Mort was in a league of his own, of course. There have been other great Mad Caricaturists, but Mort was the best in my estimation.
Well we all have an expiry date and when your young you tend not to think about the end of the journey as you think your invincible and too busy having fun (well that's what I did) . Its going to happen to every one of us so its best not to dwell on it but when our childhood heroes pass away it does draw you up for a minute or two. We still have 30 plus years on Mort if were lucky to teach that age providing your mobile and healthy
Barring unwelcome intervention from Covid-19, I hope to get into my 100s, McS. A man's reach should always exceed his grasp, and all that. If I make it, hopefully you'll still be around too, to comment on my blog posts.
Sad to learn of Mr Drucker's passing, always a favorite of mine and made charicature look easy (which I don't have to tell you - it ain't!) I quite often thumb through his Familiar Faces book and the Mad Spring 1980 Movie Special that sit side by side on my bookshelf. Still, 91 is a pretty good innings, hope I make it that far.
I follow Tom Richmond's blog and I feel he's no slouch in the charicture field.
Like you say it does provide a mortality reminder when people responsible for the enjoyment they brought you when you were formulating your art & pop culture tastes back in the day are suddenly gone.
Tom Richmond (whose site is in my blog-list) is certainly an ace caricaturist, PC, but Mort Drucker's skill wasn't just in how he drew a caricature; it was the way he composed a panel (true, he sometimes used photo reference - you can see some in the Bond strip), as well as other little touches. His pages were just a joy to look at.
Hope you and yours are keeping well over there.
Just taking it day by day here in the coronaverse, only the two of us to worry about in the house with our offspring both having their own places now, and we are well stocked for food and distractions. Week three of home isolation almost completed for us here (I have been stood down from my work so I still have a job, I just can't do it).
(Really should spell-check my comments more than I do too, on reading my initial one back above! - caricature is a tricky word)
Yeah those crowd scenes of Mort's were a feat of composition - even the 'nobodys' had distinct personalities.
Good to know that at least you still have a job to get back to, PC. Maybe there'll be a series of collections of all Mort's movie & TV parodies at some stage. Or at least the best of them, which will probably be the blockbusters and long-running TV shows.
RIP Mort D. Those Bond bits are cool, but for my money Drucker reached his peak when he and Lou Silverstone did "Bats-Man," a brilliant spoof of the spoof, and as good as anything MAD did during the Kurtzman years.
Yeah, that's another one of my favourites, GP. I think it's on the blog somewhere, but I might add it to this post as well.
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