Mort Drucker, 2012
The New York Times reports artist Mort Drucker, who was best known for his caricatures of celebrities and politicians in MAD magazine, has died at his home in Woodbury, New York. He was 91 years old.
Morris Drucker was born in Brooklyn on March 22, 1929, and attended the borough’s Erasmus Hall High School. A self-taught artist, Drucker began his professional career at the age of 18 after a recommendation from a family friend, the cartoonist Will Eisner: his first job was as an assistant on Bert Whitman’s newspaper strip “Debbie Dean, Career Girl,” and as a ghost artist on Paul Webb’s Esquire gag panel strip “The Mountain Boys.” He joined the staff of National Periodical Publications, now known as DC Comics, before leaving in the 1950s to go freelance.
Drucker worked on a number of mystery, war, sci-fi and humor titles at various publishers, including National. He was recruited to MAD by Nick Meglin, and made his debut in April 1957’s issue #32. He drew his film and TV parody with a Perry Mason spoof in 1959, and his caricatures of screen actors became a major selling point for the magazine: actor Michael J. Fox commented during a 1985 Tonight Show appearance that he knew he’d truly made it in Hollywood “when Mort Drucker drew my head.” Drucker’s final parody, “The Chronic-Ills of Yawnia: Prince Thespian,” was published when he retired in 2008.
He also illustrated children’s books and designed coloring books, including 1962’s satirical bestseller, the JFK Coloring Book. He also branched into album covers, advertising, film posters, and even created the cover of the October 26, 1970 edition of TIME magazine (captioned “Battle for the Senate”).
He was commissioned by George Lucas to create the poster for his 1973 film American Graffiti, an association that led to an amusing situation in 1981, when Lucasfilm’s legal department sent a cease-and-desist letter to MAD, demanding them to recall their Empire Strikes Back parody, “The Empire Strikes Out.” The editors replied by sending a copy of a letter they had received the previous month from Lucas, comparing Drucker to Leonardo da Vinci, and offering to buy the original artwork for the strip.
Between 1984 and 1986, Drucker and Jerry Dumas created the syndicated gag strip “Benchley,” which revolved around the titular assistant of President Ronald Reagan. The popular comic featured political figures like Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger, Walter Mondale and Prince Charles and Diana, and led to Drucker receiving complimentary letters from White House speaker Tip O’Neill, politician Geraldine Ferraro, and even Reagan himself.
For his work, Drucker was honored multiple times by National Cartoonists Society, including a 1987 win for the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, and an induction into the Society’s Hall of Fame in 2017. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Boston in 1995, and his TIME magazine covers have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian. He is survived by his wife Barbara Hellerman, whom he met at Erasmus Hall High, and married shortly after her graduation. They had two daughters, and three grandchildren.
