Mort Drucker has died

Man, and Sy Mead ... my childhood heroes are disappearing.

I would pick up the odd Mad magazine from the grocery store (or Rexall Drug) if I had enough allowance money. I had been drawing since I was a small kid (like everyone else) but as I got to be about 11 or 12 I started seriously trying to draw people: the hardest thing for me to draw well.

One style of art stood out for me in Mad magazine. The artist drew people in a realistic way. They were caricatures to a degree, but not off the scale like Don Martin. The poses and facial expressions were natural, the lines minimal but enough to convey a degree of realism.

I looked at how Mort Drucker drew the clavicle on a woman, as an example — just a little serif, a small arc with a long tail — and I started drawing clavicles like that.

And on and on.

I've come to believe that an artist's "style" is a result of all the little tells they've stolen from other artists (perhaps tempered by their own artistic shortcomings?).

I often wonder where Mort Drucker and other contemporary artists got their style from. Use of line weight from Winsor McCay? Crosshatching from John Tenniel?

No doubt Mort Drucker has influenced thousands and thousands of artists. He will be missed but his art will always still be here.

That's an actual legacy.

The guy had a genius for simple yet superb art.

An example off pinterest...

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e1/ee/70/e1ee708d9a72bb8b8c52c8aa9...

I drove to Microcenter with my son yesterday, picking up parts for new workstations. Brought my son to get out of the house, he brought a Mad magazine (Christmas book special edition) and read it the entire way. RIP Mort!

In a 1985 MAD issue there was a 'special computer section' with numerous tech jokes, oddities and a giant chunk of BASIC code

Here's a thread of scans posted recently: https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/124937498518697984...

(https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1249374985186979840.html)

I've always been particularly impressed by the way Mort Drucker drew hands -- so expressive and seemingly effortless, sometimes carrying the scene as much as the faces.

A good summary: http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2006/03/wowee-look-at-th...

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I met Mort Drucker by accident at a Starbucks in Syosset, NY. I noticed he was sketching and made a comment. His companion said, do you know who this is..?

I worked in a comic book shop in high school and into college. Of course I knew Mort Drucker, and now I recognize him.

Kinda ironic that his name literally means dead in French

Even though I haven’t read MAD in a long time, and didn’t see this name anywhere for probably a decade, seeing this post instantly sparked recognition.

Is it common in the USA to have an obituary without including the cause of death?