Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art

Harvey Kurtzman may have invented Mad, but for 99% of Mad's readers, it's the work of Will Elder that comes to mind when they think of the magazine.

Elder remained on good terms with Kurtzman -- a childhood friend -- after Kurtzman left Mad, and they continued to work together on various projects, such as Playboy's Little Annie Fanny and Goodman Beaver. But despite his immense talents as an artist and humorist, Elder always worked in the shadow of the charismatic Kurtzman. Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art, published in 2003 by Fantagraphics, finally gives Elder the recognition he deserves.

Every page of this monster-sized book is filled with examples of Elder's obsessive attention to detail, which separates his work from Kurtzman's (who was a broad brush kind of guy, albeit a great one). Elder's technical chops are supreme, and the longer you look at his work, the more you are rewarded. I love his talent for imitating other cartoonists' styles (which he used to parody Archie, Li'L Abner, Alley Oop, etc.), and I love the tiny little gags he inserts into nearly every panel. Unfortunately, the worst piece of art in this book is on the cover. Too bad Fantagraphics didn't use something like this Norman Rockwell parody instead.

Included is a lot of Elder's stuff from Mad, as well as sketches, paintings, and gag cartoons done for other magazines. Dan Clowes (Of Eightball and Ghostworld) wrote the intoduction, and there's commentary by Hugh Hefner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee (another of Elder's childhood friends), Terry Gilliam, William Stout, and Jerry Garcia.

400 pages, 9"x12" full-color softcover.

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