Will Elder - The Mad Cartoonists - part 9

My sharing of the first 4 issues of "Mad" the comic book (precurser to Mad Magazine) continues this week with the contributions by Bill (or Will) Elder, maybe the "Mad"est of all of Harvey Kurtzman's contributing cartoonists.


Will is also the default cover artist in these halcyon days.

You'll note that in this pre-Alfred E. Newman era, the running over gag often seemed to revolve around a character named "Melvin".

Will Elder is known for his inclusion of "Chicken Fat" to his art. A term he coined himself to describe all the added gags and jokes and characters that happen around the main focus of the panels. Someone once said, that if you read Elder's stories once, you're cheating yourself. The joy comes with re-reading and re-reading and re-reading them again and again and slurping up all that prime chicken fat.

I agree.

Here's the first Mad story Elder ever drew for Kurtzman, "Ganefs!". Enjoy!

Lot's more "Chicken Fat" coming this week!

Talk to you soon.