Cartoonist Will Elder died on Thursday, May 16, according to several sources including the Comics Reporter. Among his many achievements, Elder was the flagship artist of MAD‘s first incarnation as a satirical comic book for young readers, edited and written by Harvey Kurtzman. Elder distinguished himself with his ability to parodically mimic other cartooning styles and pack his comics panels with dense sight-gags, while hewing to Kurtzman’s carefully composed page breakdowns. The Journalista! blog runs a fond reminiscence by Elder’s son-in-law, Gary VandenBergh. The New York Observer and the CBC both run obituaries. The “Mad Mumblings” website includes an interview with Elder conducted around the time of the publication of a retrospective book, Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art. The artist was 86.