"What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine" Exhibition

From the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Illustration by Richard Williams

The Norman Rockwell Museum will explore the art and satire of MAD magazine in the exhibit, What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine. 

Over 150 pieces of original art will be displayed, including paintings, drawings, cartoons, ephemera, artifacts, and other media. 

One gallery will be focused solely on the work of Mort Drucker, who spent more than five decades drawing caricatures and illustrations for MAD.

Basil Wolverton Collection donated to The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

From The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Monte Wolverton has donated a significant collection of his cartoonist father Basil Wolverton’s archives, ephemera, and some original art to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Mad Magazine Cartoonist Al Jaffee Dies at 102

From The New York Times.

Al Jaffee at work in 2010 in his studio in Provincetown, Mass.

Al Jaffee, a cartoonist who folded in when the trend in magazine publishing was to fold out, thereby creating one of Mad magazine’s most recognizable and enduring features, died on Monday in Manhattan. 

Paul Coker Jr., 1929-2022

From The Comics Journal.

Paul Coker Jr., prolific cartoonist, illustrator, and longtime MAD Magazine contributor, passed away at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on July 23, 2022, at the age of 93.

Art Spiegelman Interviewed in The Guardian

Sam Leith in The Guardian.

Clockwise from top left: Valentine’s Day cover for the New Yorker, 1993, Nude Self-Portrait, 1999, Raw, Self-Portrait with Maus Mask, sketchbook study for Four Mice, 1991, Lead Pipe Sunday, 1990.

Forty years on from ‘the first masterpiece in comic-book history’, the Pulitzer-winning cartoonist talks fame, switching styles and why he doesn’t want to draw Trump.

Tales from the Vault: 40 Years / 40 Stories

From the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

(Top row, left to right)
1 – Rube Goldberg, Rube Goldberg Views the News for His Latest Invention, March 31, 1951.
2 – Richard F. Outcault, Around the World with the Yellow Kid: The Yellow Kid Invades Germany, 1897.
3 – Al Capp, Li’l Abner, October 21, 1946.
4 – Lyn Chevli and Joyce Farmer, Abortion Eve, 1973.
(Bottom row, left to right)
1 – Various artists, All-Negro Comics No. 1, June 1947.
2 – Lynn Johnston, For Better or For Worse, April 10, 1995.
3 – Victor F. Gillam, Phryne before the Chicago Tribunal, June 4, 1884.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has launched a new digital exhibition based on our 2017 exhibit, Tales from the Vault: 40 Years / 40 Stories, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of our founding.

Al Jaffee Retires at 99

From The Daily Cartoonist.

Al Jaffee, officially the longest-working comic artist ever, has decided to retire at age 99. So to mark his farewell, Mad’s “Usual Gang of Idiots” will salute Jaffee with a tribute issue next week.

It will be the magazine’s final regular issue to offer new material, including Jaffee’s final Fold-In, 65 years after he made his Mad debut.

Mort Drucker 1929-2020

From the New York Post.

Mort Drucker, the renowned caricature artist behind many movie posters and the satiric illustrations of cult comedy staple Mad magazine died April 9 at his home in Woodbury, N.Y. He was 91.

Turkish Cartoonist Musa Kart Freed on Appeal

From France 24.

Turkey's top appeals court on Thursday ordered the release of five former journalists from the Cumhuriyet newspaper, including prominent cartoonist Musa Kart, in a case that has highlighted the threat to press freedom in the country.

"Artistically MAD: Seven Decades of Satire" at Ohio State

From the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum website.

Harvey Kurtzman’s brainchild made its debut as a comic book in 1952 before switching to a magazine format in 1955.

Over the ensuing years, MAD has featured artwork by many of the most talented cartoonists in the industry. 

Mort Drucker in Conversation with John Reiner

From the NCS website.

One of the most innovative, inspirational and imitated artists in the history of cartooning, Mort Drucker has illuminated the pages of MAD Magazine since 1956 with his brilliant movie and TV caricatures. His Time covers hang in the National Portrait Gallery and he holds an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Boston. In 1987, the National Cartoonists Society awarded him the profession’s highest honor, the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Jacques Hurtubise 1950-2015

BK Munn in Sequential.

My tribute to Jacques Hurtubise in Tuesday's edition of Le Droit.

Cartoonist Jacques Hurtubise, aka Zyx, died this past week in Montreal of heart failure.

A key figure in the development of comics culture in the province of Quebec, Hurtubise was one of the founders of the seminal humour magazine Croc and was a ceaseless innovator and promoter of comics throughout his career.

"Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created MAD and Revolutionized Humor in America"

From Fantagraphics.

Harvey Kurtzman created MAD, and MAD revolutionized humor in America. Kurtzman's groundwork as the original editor, artist, and sole writer of MAD provided the foundation for one of the greatest publishing successes of the 20th century. But how did Kurtzman invent MAD, and why did he leave it shortly after it burst nova-like onto the American scene?

Batman as drawn by...

...some Comics' superheros.

Batman as drawn by Mort Drucker from Mad.

I don't usually bother fellow cartoonists for autographs or originals, but a Montreal friend, who was then publishing a Batman fanzine, learned that I was attending the 1989 NCS convention in Toronto and asked me if I could get a few sketches for him. The response was beyond my wildest dreams!