Mad Magazine Cartoonist Mort Drucker Is Dead

If you've spent any time at all with Mad Magazine over the years, you've been entertained by Mort Drucker. But Thursday brings bad news: The legendary cartoonist has died at age 91 at his home in Woodbury, New York, reports the New York Times. No cause of death was given, and it was unclear whether it was related to the coronavirus. Drucker joined Mad in 1956 and gained particular renown in the subsequent decades for his parodies of movies and TV shows. "I think I've drawn almost everyone in Hollywood," he once told the Times. In time, big stars came to cherish being immortalized by Drucker.

For example, Jerry Seinfeld said a cover drawn by Drucker in which Seinfeld says, "Helloooo Neuman" to magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman was "the greatest thing that ever happened to me," per the New York Post. George Lucas once said Drucker deserved a "special Oscar" for his Star Wars illustrations and dubbed him the "Leonardo da Vinci of satire," notes Newsweek. Drucker, though, played down his gifts. “When I started working for Mad, they assigned me TV satires and asked me to draw famous people,” he once explained. “So I just did it. It took me a long time to learn the skills I have, and it was time-consuming. With me, everything is trial and error.” (More Mad Magazine stories.)