Howard and Jerry and Mad

Howard Stern and Jerry Seinfeld were talking on the radio this morning about how important Mad Magazine was to their comedic developments. They each feel that their respective Mad covers are among their proudest accomplishments.

Jerry Seinfeld singled out Mad's movie and TV parodies for their excellence and (get this) he knew great artist Mort Drucker by name. That startled me! Of course any comics fan appreciates the fine work of Mr. Drucker, but to hear that gentleman's name bandied about in the large forum of a national radio show was wonderful. (As superb as Mr. Drucker's Mad work was, I am fonder of what he drew for DC Comics, like these pages:)

Speaking of DC Comics, Howard Stern mentioned for the umpteenth time that erstwhile DC maven Jack Adler was his cousin. Students of history will recognize Mr. Adler's name since that gentleman colored just about every DC cover in the 1950s and 1960s, but my absolute favorite work of his were the 1960-1962 covers to which he added grey tones. Here's one of them and you can see more over here.

(Starting later this week (and then continuing forever after), over here you will be able to watch Howard Stern guest starring in the latest episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Gettng Coffee.)

Howard and Jerry and Mad. Comics and comic books, together again for the first time!