Michael Dooley (The Education of a Comics Artist, Teaching Motion Design) just did an excellent essay on Elder for AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). Click here to read the entire article.
Elder Statesman of Comics
by Michael Dooley (August 12, 2008)
One could do worse than having a comic strip about a bubble-headed blonde that ran in the back pages of Playboy as one’s most well known accomplishment. But if your name was Will Elder, who died May 14 at age 86, you could do a whole lot better. And indeed, although his earlier works are lesser known, they have a much more respectable, and respectful, following.
More than the general public, designers are likely to be familiar with Elder’s brilliant disassembling of the mass media and pop culture in general, starting with Mad in its nascent phase as a 10-cent comic book. Countless comics artists—from Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch and Rick Griffin to Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes and Chris Ware—have been profoundly affected by his comics, to say nothing of his numerous art department heirs at Mad, the magazine, over the past 50 years.
And his impact doesn’t stop with cartoonists. He’s influenced directors from the Zucker Brothers and Terry Gilliam to Louis Malle, and his anarchic, anything goes sensibility can also be felt in Firesign Theatre records and The Simpsons TV show.
Yep, Willie Elder was the macdaddy of Firesign type insanity.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great article, thanks for pointing the way, Bhob. I love the idea that with new collections being published this body of work by the EC gang will be able to be enjoyed for generations to come.
ReplyDeleteRe Firesign: Note that Phil Proctor had a comment in the letters page of Panic #3 (June 1954).
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