MAD's Greatest Artists: Mort Drucker

MAD's Greatest Artists

by Mort Drucker

A contributor to MAD since its earliest years of the fabled Humor magazine, Mort Drucker is recognized throughout the art world as one of the greatest caricaturists of the twentieth century.

He has won numerous awards and honors including the National Cartoonists Society’s prestigious Reuben Award, the Will Eisner Hall of Fame Award, and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Boston.

Drucker’s most famous features are his movie and television satires. From The Godfather to Star Wars, and from Hulk Hogan to Woody Allen, he has captured our culture’s most popular characters with one master stroke after another. Michael J. Fox once told Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show that he knew he had made it when Mort Drucker drew his caricature in MAD. And George Lucas personally traveled to Drucker’s Long Island home to convince him to illustrate the poster for American Graffiti.
Drucker’s greatest MAD works are collected here for the first time ever, hand-picked by the artist himself. It is a celebration that has been more than 55 years in the making!

Genres: Comics, Humor, Art

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2012

Reviews

[Lena]

Ibland när man har läst ngt riktigt, riktigt bra
(Som Balsam Karams Singulariteten) så behöver
man rensa hjärnan innan nästa bok...den här
fungerade sanslöst bra: jag känner mig hjärndöd.
Men Druckers karikatyrer av skådisar är fantastiska.

[Shrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like I'm letting my 11-year old self down, but the Mad movie spoof really doesn't hold up all that well. Terrible pun ... joke about how bad this movie sucks ... cue laugh track. Sigh.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always loved Mort Drucker's contributions to Mad Magazine. As a kid, I'd always look closely at each panel of his movie satires, searching for the little puns and pieces of visual humor in the background. This is a good collection of some of his best, much of which I remembered from the first go-'round in the '70s and '80s. Unfortunately, whoever compiled this work (supposedly Drucker himself, though I have my doubts) chose way too many Mad musical parodies, one of my least favorite occasional features of the magazine. Some of the other parodies don't hold up particularly well, and there are bits of humor that definitely wouldn't make it into such a magazine today. Still, much of the humor does hold up surprisingly well, and of course, Drucker's artwork remains consistently great throughout.

[Viggo Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 decades of his finest work for Mad magazine! His drawings/art work is just fantastic. He really captured the essence of the real people he drew. He didn't write the words in the spoofs/parodies, but even without the words, you would get the story. A true legend in the comic world!

[Kirby Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the writing quality diminishes as we leave the '70s, Mort's art remains remarkable and fun from beginning to end... which is why anyone reads this great collection.

[Charlie Eckhaus]

A handy collection of Drucker's amazing caricatures for Mad Magazine (including those for West Side Story, Bonanza, The Godfather, American Graffiti, Jaws, NYPD Blue... I could go on and on.) An opportunity to admire his inking skills and relive a lot of favorite TV and movie-watching.

The interview is enlightening without giving away any profound secrets.

Some of the creators of the originals pay tribute to their parodist.

Interesting to see his later works on material I hadn't been familiar with, and see how he tinkered with his style to fit the subject matter.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I actually reverted to my 8 year old self when I saw this book on the library shelf--Mad Magazine was my bible growing up and the film and tv parodies were always my favorite due in no small part to the fantastic art of Mort Drucker. This book is just gorgeous--filled with complete parodies from the mag as well as some partial reproductions and lots of information on the glory days of Mad's parodies and even reactions from many of those parodied. I would adore to own this book--the parodies still cracked me up and made me remember why Mad was my savior growing up in a po-dunk town with few friends and no one who understood my perverse side.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

My all-favorite Mad cartoonist (Tom Richmond is a close second,) has some of his best pop art material collected over the span of 50 years. Fans like myself will be pleased that Superman, Star Wars, Jaws, Harry Potter, and other great parodies are included inside this book of caricature brilliance.

[Butch Mosier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't care less about the spoofs of the movies and TV shows- although many of them are pretty amusing- but I can spend an hour on each page of this book just marveling at Drucker's skill at caricature. His ability to capture the essence of someone is remarkable. He's a singular talent.

[Terence · Rating 2 out of 5]

4+ stars for the artwork: Mort Drucker really was an amazing artist.

2 - 2.5 stars for the parodies: A lot of the parodies don't age well, though I was transported back to the late '70s/early '80s when I owned the original comics some of those parodies appeared in.