Will Elder – Robinson Crusoe
24 Sunday Nov 2013
Posted comics, Mad Magazine, Robinson Crusoe, Will Elder
in24 Sunday Nov 2013
Posted comics, Mad Magazine, Robinson Crusoe, Will Elder
in24 Sunday Nov 2013
Posted Shadow, Will Elder
inWilliam (Bill or Will) Elder
was born as Wolf Eisenberg in New York City in 1921 and attended the New York High School of Music and Art, as did many comic book artists. There, he met Harvey Kurtzman, with whom his career would show more than one remarkable parallel. He subsequently studied at the Academy of Design, before joining the army in 1942. He was present at the disembarkation in Normandy in June 1944, and participated in the liberation of Cologne. Back in civil life in 1946, he began a studio together with Harvey Kurtzman and Charles Stern. Elder’s first comic job was ‘Rufus Debree’, a story for they Toy Town comic in 1947.
During the early years of his comics career, he worked mainly as the inker of John Severin. Between 1948 and 1951, they produced ‘American Eagle’ in Prize Comics Western for Crestwood, and did occasionally comic book art for National and Nedor. In late 1950, they joined EC Comics, where they cooperated on stories for ‘Two-Fisted Tales’, ‘Frontline Combat’ and ‘Weird Fantasy’. Elder illustrated two Al Feldstein scripted stories on his own for ‘Weird Science’ issues 14 and 19. From 1953, he also contributed some stories to EC’s horror and crime titles, sometimes in collaboration with Jack Kamen.
Elder was one of the original artists of Harvey Kurtzman’s ‘Mad’ from its first issue in October/November 1952. He specialized in parody and satire, making fun of established characters like ‘Mickey Mouse’, ‘Mandrake’ and ‘Archie’. From 1954 to 1956, he was also present in EC’s other humor title, ‘Panic’. Elder left EC together with Kurtzman in 1956, and Elder went on to satirize commercial illustrators in Trump, Kurtzman’s shortlived magazine financed by Playboy’s Hugh Heffner. Elder also worked for the other Kurtzman titles, Humbug and Help!, in which he parodied ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ and ‘Tarzan’. For Help!, Elder and Kurtzman also created the character ‘Goodman Beaver’.
n 1962, Elder and Kurtzman gave ‘Goodman Beaver’ a gender change, and turned him into ‘Little Annie Fanny’, whose stories were published in Playboy. They worked on ‘Little Annie Fanny’ until September 1988, sometimes assisted by Al Jaffee, Jack Davis, Russ Heath and other Mad artists. From 1959, Elder was also a versatile illustrator. He illustrated book covers, movie posters and advertisements for television programs in TV Guide (1976-1985). From 1985 and 1987, Elder and Kurtzman made a comeback in Mad magazine.
lder and Kurtzman’s collaboration lasted until 1988, the year Elder retired. Elder – the clown of the couple – always added small extra jokes in the panels when Kurtzman had finished scripting and penciling them (Chinese restaurant ‘Few Men Chew’). Later, top underground comix artists like Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman remembered the team of Bill Elder and Harvey Kurtzman as a major influence on their comix. Elder died on May 15, 2008 from complications due to Parkinson’s disease.
(lambiek.net)
11 Monday Nov 2013
Posted comics, Gasoline Valley!, Mad Magazine, Will Elder
inWill Elder (1921-2008)
along with Wally Wood, was a manic force on the pages of MAD when it launched as a comic book under Harvey Kurtzman in the early 1950s. (See Drew’s portraits of Wood, Kurtzman, and Al Jaffee, also available as limited edition fine art prints.)
Elder, who had a unique gift for visual mimicry, often concocted savage parodies of tame mainstream strips (e.g., Mickey Mouse, Archie, Gasoline Alley). His panels were dotted with background gags and peripheral gremlins making absurd secondary dialogue. In 1957 Elder and Kurtzman left MAD to partner on several short-lived humor magazines, including Trump, Humbug, and Help! In 1962, he launched (with Kurtzman) the bawdy Little Annie Fanny series, which ran in Playboy until 1988.
(drewfriedman.net)
09 Saturday Nov 2013
Posted comics, Mad Magazine, Shermlock Shomes, Will Elder
inMad is an American humor magazine
founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than 2,000,000 during its 1970s circulation peak.
The last surviving title from the notorious and critically acclaimed EC Comics line, the magazine offers satire on all aspects of life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. Its format is divided into a number of recurring segments such as TV and movie parodies, as well as freeform articles. Mad’s mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, is typically the focal point of the magazine’s cover, with his face often replacing a celebrity or character that is lampooned within the issue.
In 2010, the magazine’s oldest and longest-running contributor, Al Jaffee, told an interviewer, “Mad was designed to corrupt the minds of children. And from what I’m gathering from the minds of people all over, we succeeded.”
Debuting in August 1952 (cover date October–November), Mad began as a comic book published by EC, located in lower Manhattan at 225 Lafayette Street. In the early 1960s, the Mad office moved to 485 Madison Avenue, a location given in the magazine as “485 MADison Avenue”. The title is trademarked in capitals as MAD.
Written almost entirely by Harvey Kurtzman, the first issue featured illustrations by Kurtzman himself, along with Wally Wood, Will Elder, Jack Davis and John Severin. Wood, Elder and Davis were the three main illustrators throughout the 23-issue run of the comic book.
To retain Kurtzman as its editor, the comic book converted to magazine format as of issue (1955). The switchover only induced Kurtzman to remain for one more year, but crucially, the move had removed Mad from the strictures of the Comics Code Authority. After Kurtzman’s departure in 1956, new editor Al Feldstein swiftly brought aboard contributors such as Don Martin, Frank Jacobs and Mort Drucker, and later, Antonio Prohías and Dave Berg. The magazine’s circulation more than quadrupled during Feldstein’s tenure, peaking at 2,132,655 in 1974; it later declined to a third of this figure by the end of his time as editor. When Feldstein retired in 1984, he was replaced by the team of Nick Meglin and John Ficarra, who co-edited Mad for the next two decades. Since Meglin’s retirement in 2004, Ficarra has continued to edit the magazine.
Gaines sold his company in the early 1960s to the Kinney Parking Company, which also acquired National Periodicals (aka DC Comics) and Warner Bros. by the end of that decade. Gaines was named a Kinney board member, and was largely permitted to run Mad as he saw fit without corporate interference.
Following Gaines’s death, Mad became more ingrained within the Time Warner corporate structure. Eventually, the magazine was obliged to abandon its long-time home at 485 Madison Avenue, and in the mid-1990s it moved into DC Comics’ offices at the same time DC relocated to 1700 Broadway. In 2001, the magazine broke its long-standing taboo and began running paid advertising. The outside revenue allowed for the introduction of color printing and improved paper stock.
In its earliest incarnation, new issues of the magazine appeared erratically, between four and seven times a year. By the end of 1958, Mad had settled on an unusual eight-times-a-year schedule, which lasted almost four decades. Gaines felt the atypical timing was necessary to maintain the magazine’s level of quality. Mad then began producing additional issues, until it reached a traditional monthly schedule with the January 1997 issue. With its 500th issue (June 2009), amid company-wide cutbacks at Time Warner, the magazine temporarily regressed to a quarterly publication before settling to six issues per year in 2010.
(en.wikipedia.org)
08 Friday Nov 2013
Posted Charley Chinless, comics, Will Elder
inWilliam (Bill or Will) Elder
was born as Wolf Eisenberg in New York City in 1921 and attended the New York High School of Music and Art, as did many comic book artists. There, he met Harvey Kurtzman, with whom his career would show more than one remarkable parallel. He subsequently studied at the Academy of Design, before joining the army in 1942. He was present at the disembarkation in Normandy in June 1944, and participated in the liberation of Cologne. Back in civil life in 1946, he began a studio together with Harvey Kurtzman and Charles Stern. Elder’s first comic job was ‘Rufus Debree’, a story for they Toy Town comic in 1947.
During the early years of his comics career, he worked mainly as the inker of John Severin. Between 1948 and 1951, they produced ‘American Eagle’ in Prize Comics Western for Crestwood, and did occasionally comic book art for National and Nedor. In late 1950, they joined EC Comics, where they cooperated on stories for ‘Two-Fisted Tales’, ‘Frontline Combat’ and ‘Weird Fantasy’. Elder illustrated two Al Feldstein scripted stories on his own for ‘Weird Science’ issues 14 and 19. From 1953, he also contributed some stories to EC’s horror and crime titles, sometimes in collaboration with Jack Kamen.
Elder was one of the original artists of Harvey Kurtzman’s ‘Mad’ from its first issue in October/November 1952. He specialized in parody and satire, making fun of established characters like ‘Mickey Mouse’, ‘Mandrake’ and ‘Archie’. From 1954 to 1956, he was also present in EC’s other humor title, ‘Panic’. Elder left EC together with Kurtzman in 1956, and Elder went on to satirize commercial illustrators in Trump, Kurtzman’s shortlived magazine financed by Playboy’s Hugh Heffner. Elder also worked for the other Kurtzman titles, Humbug and Help!, in which he parodied ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ and ‘Tarzan’. For Help!, Elder and Kurtzman also created the character ‘Goodman Beaver’.
In 1962, Elder and Kurtzman gave ‘Goodman Beaver’ a gender change, and turned him into ‘Little Annie Fanny’, whose stories were published in Playboy. They worked on ‘Little Annie Fanny’ until September 1988, sometimes assisted by Al Jaffee, Jack Davis, Russ Heath and other Mad artists. From 1959, Elder was also a versatile illustrator. He illustrated book covers, movie posters and advertisements for television programs in TV Guide (1976-1985). From 1985 and 1987, Elder and Kurtzman made a comeback in Mad magazine.
Elder and Kurtzman’s collaboration lasted until 1988, the year Elder retired. Elder – the clown of the couple – always added small extra jokes in the panels when Kurtzman had finished scripting and penciling them (Chinese restaurant ‘Few Men Chew’). Later, top underground comix artists like Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman remembered the team of Bill Elder and Harvey Kurtzman as a major influence on their comix. Elder died on May 15, 2008 from complications due to Parkinson’s disease
The greatest WordPress.com site in all the land!
¡Compartiendo lo mejor del Noveno Arte!
A continuing mission to produce flash fiction stories in 300 words (or less)
...la vida misma...
Random and Abstract Lines
I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics.
The Art Diary of Dawn Henning, a Brooklyn Artist...
An IT Architecture Perspective...
comics, pop culture and related topics
This is a blog about nothing, but finds a way to cover everything.
Donkey Education
Living In The Past Since 2009
Litter from the noggin with a little love in between.
The works and artistic visions of Ken Knieling.
News and opinions regarding comics, publishing, and other stuff from Ink and Feathers Comics
buzzing head
This WordPress.com site is the cat’s pajamas
Art & Design
Open a vein, see what flows
visionary author
Ever wondered what goes on when the proprietor of secondhand record shop at the butt end of the world chucks in the towel and goes back to having a life??
PTE Egyetemi Könyvtár és Tudásközpont (Esemény Blog)
Embrace Your PUNCHY Nature
A Blog of the Ridiculous and Sublime, by Mark Sackler
In Trash We Trust
A literary blog of poet, playwright and essayist Rachael Stanford
The Diary of a Retiree
A bucket list blog: exploring happiness, growth, and the world.
An Independent, Alternative Comic Book
Because my life is consistently too inconsistent for "regular" sized things
All my banned posts are here!
Kalabalu.WordPress.com site
lost gun won't travel
http://www.karenmontaguereyes.com ~ clearaguaazul at yahoo.com
Indy Wrestling, MMA, Comic, Anime, & Gaming News
Life as it was reported back then
Celebrating Nature and Magic for Kids of all Ages
fiction, poetry & stuff
A Népi Front blogja
Media Production and Marketing from the heart of Cardiff
** OFFICIAL Site of Artist Ray Ferrer **
A Girly Traveler's Journey
A history of pavement art!
From Zero to Comic-Book Hero in One Year (Hopefully)
Official Blog of Kevin Cullen & Friends
Mike Culpepper's blog about stuff that interests him.
Comics and cosmical thoughts
Welcome !