Will Elder

Will Elder
Will Elder self-portrait
BornWolf William Eisenberg
(1921-09-22)September 22, 1921
Bronx, New York, United States
DiedMay 15, 2008(2008-05-15) (aged 86)
Rockleigh, New Jersey, United States
Notable works
Mad
Little Annie Fanny
AwardsInkpot Award (2000)[1]

William Elder (born Wolf William Eisenberg; September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008)[2] was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952.

Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner said, "He was a zany, and a lovable one."[3] Longtime Mad writer-cartoonist Al Jaffee called Elder "Absolutely brilliant... he was the star from the beginning. He had a feel for the kind of satire that eventually spread everywhere."[3]

Elder was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2018, the Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon described Elder as "an amazing artist, a sneaky spot-holder on the top 20 of the 20th century".[4]

  1. ^ "Inkpot Award". Comic-Con International: San Diego. December 6, 2012.
  2. ^ Haber, Matt (May 15, 2008). "Illustrator and Prankster Will Elder Dies at 86". The New York Observer. Retrieved May 15, 2008.
  3. ^ a b McLellan, Dennis (May 17, 2008). "OBITUARIES/Will Elder, 1921 – 2008: Cartoonist at launch of Mad magazine". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011.
  4. ^ "The Comics Reporter".

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