ANDREA SEABROOK, host: We take a moment now to remember Will Elder. He was an artist who rendered lines and dots and squiggles the old-fashioned way - with pen on paper. Even if you don't know Will Elder's name, you probably know his work. He was one of the original artists from Mad magazine. He helped give Mad that insane look.</s>ANDREA SEABROOK, host: Elder broke comic conventions, drawing lines that often went outside the box, literally. And he filled his backgrounds with visual gags, most of which had nothing to do with the storylines. But before Mad launched in 1962, Will Elder put his talents to more sober and patriotic uses.</s>ANDREA SEABROOK, host: He served in the army in Europe, drawing contour maps of the beaches at Normandy, this in preparation for the World War II invasion there. Will Elder, originally Wolf William Eisenstein, died Thursday. He has Parkinson's Disease. He was 86 years old.</s>ANDREA SEABROOK, host: This is NPR News.
One of the original artists for Mad Magazine died Thursday at 86 from Parkinson's disease. Before he helped launch Mad in 1952, Elder served in the Army in Europe where he drew contour maps of the beaches at Normandy in preparation for the World War II invasion there.