I started not to mention the passing of artist Mort Drucker, because news of his death began circulating shortly after my previous post on Thursday. Since then, he has been much-eulogized by others more qualified than myself. However, I remembered that much of what I read comes through my Facebook feed, and I have a disproportionately large number of cartoonists and cartoon buffs contributing to my timeline. You probably have not heard as much about Mort’s life and death as I. Mort Drucker was a prolific and supremely talented caricaturist whose primary claim to fame was the work he did for MAD Magazine, particularly his movie and television-show parodies, but he had a lot of claims to fame. For most of his long life, he was in demand for magazine covers, movie posters, album covers and the like. He even did the artwork on a short-lived comic strip. If you’ve never heard the name Mort Drucker, you almost certainly have been exposed to his work. The other reason I wanted to mention Mort’s passing is because his MAD Magazine work had a large influence on me. Actually, the irreverent humor of the entire “gang of idiots” at MAD was an influence on me, but Mort Drucker was right up there with Alfred E. Neuman as the face of MAD. When I was young, I attended a few conventions of the National Cartoonists Society, and Mr. Drucker was there. So, I have seen him, but I was too shy to introduce myself. Apparently, I missed an opportunity. According to the accounts of others, that’s all I need have done to make him a lifelong friend.