When I came into the office this evening to do an Internet radio interview, I was dismayed to find my office e-mail brought the news that Will Elder had died today. I'm sure we'll post a full report tomorrow (by which time I'll be on an airplane -- which is the only reason I don't have time to provide the write-up that this gifted, delightful artist deserves). I've loved his work for many decades and was thrilled at the chance to meet him several years ago at Comic-Con International: San Diego.

He was born Wolf Eisenberg Sept. 22, 1921, and he first came to comics buffs' attention as the inker of John Severin's pencils for Prize Comics' "American Eagle" feature. The duo went on to work on the E.C. line of comics, and eventually Elder took on art assignments solo -- drawing most attention for his wildly inventive work on Harvey Kurtzman-scripted features for Mad. When Kurtzman left Mad, Elder went with him and worked on Trump, Humbug, and Help!

He not only continued to work with Kurtzman on the satiric "Little Annie Fanny" strip for Playboy, but he also did freelance work on books, magazines, and posters.

And that's a totally insufficient summary of the delightful body of work of a delightful creator.

I'm posting this from my Super Phone after emerging from the theater. Delicious script, nothing more pretentious than the character's story adapted for the screen. That's what they were trying to do, that's what they did, and it was worth doing. Perfect casting and no sequence was so long as to be tiresome, even for those who knew the plot. Kudos. And, yes, of course you need to sit through the credits. Hee!