Mort Drucker, the cartoonist behind Mad magazine's infamous caricatures, has passed away at the age of 91."I’m sorry to say that Mort passed away last night," Drucker's friend John Reiner said. "I saw him last Friday-he was having trouble breathing- Was not the Coronavirus as he was quarantined for weeks with no other outside contact. Due to the current circumstances we can’t have a Shiva or service of any kind. Plans are cremation and a memorial later when things get back to normal."
Drucker's professional career began in 1947 when he assisted Bert Whitman on the Debbie Dean comic strip. In 1956, after stints at DC (then National Periodical Publications), Dell, Atlas and more, he joined Mad, where he would spend the next 55 years and contribute more than 400 bylines.
He is a four-time National Cartoonists Society Special Features Award-winner, a one-time Reuben Award-winner and in 2017, he was inducted into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame.
Outside of comics and his work at Mad, Drucker notably designed the Target Supercup, a poster for American Graffiti and he has several published coloring books.