EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 18 © 2017 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

6 a sense for the comics field. After six months, he moved up to his first real job in comics with National Comics Publications, Inc . (later known as DC Comics ). He married his high school sweetheart, Barbara, and the young couple moved into a small basement apartment in Queens. On the subway to and from his job at National , Drucker would sketch the other passengers and study how the creases and folds in their clothes worked. At night after Barbara had gone to sleep, Drucker would sit awake at his desk with a small light and a mirror, practicing drawing hands in every position. He recalls: “I wanted to be as good as I could possibly be. No shortcuts. If you had a problem with something, attack it. Like hands, for instance.… Some artists drew hands in pockets or behind their backs and you knew those artists didn’t want to have any part of drawing hands. But I always thought that if something’s difficult, don’t hide, don’t run away from it. Learn to master it. That was my philosophy. And so I’d draw hands as if my life depended on it. If you can’t draw hands don’t look at how somebody else draws hands, study your own hand, do things so that you personally get to know and appreciate hands.” After two years with National , Drucker was assigned ABOVE: A detail from Mort's splash panel for MAD 's take on the 1971 movie Patton , with George C. Scott as old "Blood n' Guts" Patton with his silver Colt and enough "chest candy" to sink a fair-sized battleship. All images from MAD Magazine © E.C. Publications, Inc.