William "Will" Elder (September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008) was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art, but is best known for a zany cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952.
Mad publisher Bill Gaines approvingly called Elder "unquestionably the nuttiest guy who ever walked in the doors here." Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner said, "He was a zany, and a lovable one."...
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William "Will" Elder (September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008) was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art, but is best known for a zany cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952.
Mad publisher Bill Gaines approvingly called Elder "unquestionably the nuttiest guy who ever walked in the doors here." Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner said, "He was a zany, and a lovable one." 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."
Elder was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003.
Born Wolf William Eisenberg in the Bronx, New York, Elder was known in his teen years as "Wolfie." Elder attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City, together with future Mad artists Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, Al Jaffee and Al Feldstein. He served as a part of the 668th...
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