Cartoonist and illustrator Will Elder died 15 May 2008. Born Wolf William Eisenberg on 22 September 1921 in the Bronx, New York, he is probably best known for being in on the launch of MAD Magazine in 1952.
Eisenberg served as part of the US Army’s 668th Topographical Engineers map-making team during World War II. His efforts were an important part of the successful D-Day invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. After the war, he changed his name.
When Harvey Kurtzman launched MAD in 1952, he hired Elder, along with Wally Wood, Jim Severin, and Jack Davis, to produce content for the first issues.
“Willie Elder was one of the funniest artists to ever work for MAD. He created visual feasts with dozens of background gags layered into every MAD story he illustrated,” said current editor John Ficarra. “He called these gags ‘chicken fat.’ Willie’s ‘anything goes’ art style set the tone for the entire magazine and created a look that endures to this day.”
“Willie’s passing saddens all of us here at MAD,” says Sam Viviano, MAD Magazine Art Director, “Everyone who has attempted to draw a funny picture over the course of the last fifty or sixty years owes an enormous debt to Willie, who taught us all how to do it—and no one has ever done it better than he did.”
Prior to MAD, Elder and Charles Stern formed the Charles William Harvey Studio, which produced comics for Prize, EC Comics, and others. For EC, Elder inked Weird Fantasy and more.
After Elder and Kurtzman left MAD, they collaborated on a number of projects, including the creation of “Little Annie Fanny” for Playboy. She ran in 107 issues between 1962 and 1988.
Fantagraphics Books published the 391-page Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art in 2004. Elder’s own web site is at www.willelder.net.
[Edited later: Scott Edelman’s blog entry on Elder has links in the final paragraph to pictures and comments on Elder’s life and work by others, including Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Kurtzman, and more.]