It's a MAD MAD MAD MAD Galaxy

By Pete Vilmur

If a Star Wars fan had to conjure up the name of an artist who's long been associated with the Star Wars saga, there are a few names that easily come to mind: Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, Drew Struzan, etc. But there's one legendary artist who's flown from one side of the Star Wars galaxy to the other, and thanks to him, we've seen a lot of strange stuff.

Mort Drucker, a prolific illustrator for MAD magazine since 1956, is one of the few artists in the world who has published work for nearly every chapter in the Star Wars saga. From "The MAD Star Wars Musical" of 1978 (the second MAD take on Star Wars, the first being "Star Roars" illustrated by Harry North) to "Epic Load II: Attack of the Clowns", Drucker has caricatured nearly every Star Wars denizen to date, minus Grievous and a few other newbies from Episode III (artist Hermann Mejia covered those).

With over 50 years of illustrating for MAD, few can compete with the vast body of work Drucker has amassed, his signature style spilling over onto the occasional TIME magazine cover, advertisement, or movie poster. Drucker in fact had illustrated the key poster art for one of Lucas' pre-Star Wars features, American Graffiti, at the director's request.

"My reps got a call and they wanted me to illustrate the movie," says Drucker, "and the nice thing was that even after I did it, [Lucas] came out to my house and wanted me to sign some of the posters. That was the first time I met him. Later, I was invited to his ranch and was given a great tour. I really appreciated it."

In addition to doing the poster for Graffiti, Drucker also drew the illustrations for MAD's Graffiti parody, "American Confetti". Five years later, Drucker found himself illustrating another Lucas musical, at least in the MAD scheme of things.

"The MAD Star Wars Musical", which appeared in the December 1978 issue, introduced many Star Wars fans to Drucker's work who may have never picked up an issue of MAD before in their life. And they were no doubt impressed -- Drucker nailed the caricatures of the film's iconic characters, especially those of Luke, Han, and Obi-Wan. Readers could instantly sense an immense talent behind the illustrations, which captured the subtleties of the actors' likenesses more effectively than most portrait art.

Drucker explains his creative process:

"I could be on the subway, walking the street, or in a store, and I observe people. Immediately I look at them and think, what makes this person different from any other person? And I try to zero in on those things. I start with the contour of the face -- we all have the same features, but how do they relate to each other in that oval space? And then you do a little exaggeration to make it even more so."

Over the next thirty years, Drucker was called on by MAD to illustrate each Star Wars movie up to and including 2002's Attack of the Clones, for which he actually drew two series of parodies (totaling six series for six movies, so we'll forgive him for missing Sith). With so many different personalities from the Star Wars universe immortalized within the pages of MAD, does Drucker have any favorites?

"I have no favorites," he says. "It's just a question of illustrating the copy, and that's what I do. I think they were all pretty good. I like doing the characters and the situations -- they were all fun."

Star Wars fans who pick up MAD About Star Wars from Ballantine Books should look for a few clever inclusions that Drucker subtly inserted into the panels of his Star Wars parodies:

Page 20: Look for the rabbit's foot dangling from the Falcon's cockpit. This was depicted long before it became common knowledge that there was a pair of small gold dice seen there in A New Hope.

Page 28: The "Miss Piggy Fan Club" button worn by Yoda is a nod to Yoda's puppeteer Frank Oz, who was also the Muppet diva's master.

Page 41-47: How many derivations of the phrase "May the Force Be With You" can you spot?

Page 82: Apparently a big fan of the Muppets, Drucker likened an Episode I character to the long-snouted Gonzo. Can you guess which one?

Page 122-126: How many different hairstyles does Padmé sport in this two-page spread and subsequent paneled pages?