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

7 ABOVE & TOP: Panels from MAD 's affectionate spoof of The Godfather . It was written by Larry Siegel and, as ever, Mort's caricatures of stars such as Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and Al Pacino, were irreverently spot-on. to make changes and corrections on artwork for virtually every comic book published by National . “I worked at DC comics as a staff artist, which meant I would correct the work that artists dropped off. The artists wouldn’t hang around; they’d drop off the work and go. So when the editors wanted to change things I was given the art and I was told what the editor wanted and I did it in the style of the artist. I had to master the same style. That’s where I got my first real experience.” Drucker learned to respect and admire the art of artists Joe Kubert and Alex Toth in particular. He watched them over their shoulders as they worked. Today he still loves their work but he reflects, “Everybody has a different story. And everybody has different goals. Different artists are attracted to the art of different artists. I appreciated artists who I thought were terrific but in the end I had to be me. I had to learn to do a hand the way I would do a hand.” While working for National he was approached by the Columbia Features Syndicate to be the ghost artist for ‘The Mountain Boys’, a feature in Esquire. “I worked there for a few years, and then went out on my own”. By the early1950s, Drucker felt ready to work independently as a full time freelance artist. He drew comics as diverse