Mad magazine artist Woodbridge dead

[Khephra]

NEW YORK (AP) -- George Woodbridge, an illustrator for Mad magazine for nearly 50 years whose exquisitely detailed pen-and-ink drawings were featured in nearly every issue, has died. He was 73.

Woodbridge died of emphysema Tuesday, said his wife, Deborah Woodbridge.

"He had a tremendous eye for detail that showed up in his drawings," Mad Editor John Ficarra said Thursday. "We especially played to his history knowledge. When we gave him a piece on World War I, he would draw the exact gun and belt buckle they were using then."

Woodbridge's delicate cross-hatched illustrations were the result of careful research, particularly in rendering historical scenes. In fact, Woodbridge had a second career as an illustrator of military history books, including the three-volume "American Military Equipage, 1851-1872."

more.................

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/01/22/obit.woodbridge.ap/index.html

[ET Awful]

1. For samples of his art, and a damn good laugh . .

http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/quiz_olympics.html

[OneBlueSky]

10. ah, yes . . . 43-man squamish . . .

when that issue came out, I was a freshman at RPI . . . as a gag, our dorm assembled a 43-man squamish team, took a picture, and sent it along to Mad . . . it appeared in the following issue in the Letters to the Editor section . . . don't think I saved my uniform . . . :-(

[nostamj]

17. oh god!

i remember that too!

HUGE fan of Mad until college (when National Lampoon took over)

sad day (with Ann Miller too!)

[Fenris]

2. His pen and ink drawings were unmatched

He had a terrific eye for detail. One can get lost in his images. There was just so much there.

[terrya]

3. Wow. Quite an artist. I liked Woodbridge along with Al Martin....

I was a very devoted reader of Mad when I was a kid. I remember George Woodbridge's contributions very well.

Terry

[ewagner]

4. Also devoted MAD follower

had to read them under the covers with a flashlight because my dad considered them subversive!

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. Very sad - what an artist he was!

Many, many hours of enjoyment he gave me...

[johnnie]

6. Also...

...a Mad mag fan. I purchased the cd-rom a few years ago. It has every issue from the first to 1998. I load it in every now and then and have a laugh. Woodbridge was a great talent.

[SmileyBoy]

7. I'll never forget his "Trip to Disneyworld" drawing.

That was funny as hell.

RIP, George.

[blondeatlast]

8. An incredible artist--RIP.

[CO Liberal]

9. So Many of the Great MAD Artists Are Gone Now

Don Martin
Dave Berg
Al Jaffe
The guy who did "Spy vs. Spy"

Is Mort Drucker still around???

[LTR]

11. Al Jaffe?

Dead????

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Say it ain't so! He was the best!

I did a Google search, and found nothing.

Details on his passing???

[supernova]

12. Was it Sergio Argones

who drew Spy vs Spy? That was always my favorite. :D

I know why I have such a skewed view of the world. The first thing I learned to read by myself was MAD Magazine. :D

[Khephra]

13. Sergio is still around

and even doing Groo every 5 years or so.

[NightTrain]

15. Spy vs. Spy was by Antonio Prohias.

The magazine still runs the strip, but somebody else is doing it now.

[NightTrain]

14. First Don Martin, then Dave Berg, now George Woodbridge.

You know what's truly sad, though? The current generation of Mad's artists and writers are pretty lame compared to the so-called "Usual Gang of Idiots" that the magazine employed during the '60s, '70s and '80s. I noticed a decline in Mad's quality almost to the day after its founder and publisher, Bill Gaines, died in 1991.

And I don't think it's just nostalgia on my part. After all, when the finest satire periodical in the world is defending the RIAA against Napster, something has definitely been lost!

[Khephra]

16. I will say this

The current EIC did a speech on CSPAN about a year or two ago that was one of the best defenses of freedom of speech that I've ever heard. I wanted to order the speech from CSPAN, but I was never able to find out the info to get it.