Yesterday, I posted a story called “Gone Is the Gargoyle,” from the October 1954 issue of Marvel Tales, which featured early art by Mort Drucker (b. 22 March 1929), whose mature work set the standard for caricature on Mad Magazine’s covers and in their movie parodies for several generations. True, the art in “Gone Is the Gargoyle,” though it is clearly signed “Mort Drucker,” does not look especially Drucker-like; however, less than two years later, the same comic series, Marvel Tales, featured a story with uncredited, unsigned art by Drucker that I think definitely points in the direction of the artist’s celebrated Mad Magazine style. But you don’t have to take my word for it, because from Marvel Tales, volume 1, number 146, here is “One Man’s Leprechaun,” with art by Mort Drucker; the issue is dated May 1956, and in the fall of that same year, Drucker joined Mad:
Given a choice to save the original artwork from either “Gone Is the Gargoyle” or “One Man’s Leprechaun” from a fire, I would definitely tuck “Gone Is the Gargoyle” under my arm and make for the exit, though I suspect many true Drucker fans will view my admission as a sign I’m not really one of them.
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Well, to each his own, I always say, but I don’t see how anybody could NOT be a Drucker fan. But in a way I can see your point, because I look at Drucker’s fellow Mad artist Jack Davis that way, too. I prefer his earlier more “realistic” EC art to his more strictly cartoony stuff (but I think both styles are great). Of course, Davis’s stuff is always at least a little cartoonish, which is one reason I like it so much.
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You’ve got to get a copy of Four-Star Battle Tales #5. It’s got an 8 page Drucker frogman story! And a Krigstein, and a Heath….
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Yeah, I like Drucker’s art on “The Three Frogmen” very much — even more than “Gone Is the Gargoyle,” I think. So maybe I’ll post that one next.
Good call, David!
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