Chicken Fat: Drawings, Sketches, Cartoons and Doodles (Paperback)

by Will Elder (Author)
Key Phrases: Will Elder, Adverse Anthony, Little Annie Fanny (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A collection of sketchbook drawings by the famous MAD magazine co-creator and elder statesman of comic art.

This companion volume to Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art peeks into the gray matter of one of comics' most fertile and wide-ranging imaginations. Elder coined the term "chicken fat" to describe the myriad background gags crammed into his stories for MAD, Panic, Humbug, Goodman Beaver and Little Annie Fanny: "It's the part of the chicken soup that is bad for you, yet gives the soup its delicious flavor," he once explained. Chicken Fat is a collection of flavors by a master comedic chef as he works out his recipes.

This is a collection of sketches, drawings and a variety of obscure commercial illustration over the course of Elder's long career. Elder's stable of characters is duly represented, with Goodman Beaver, Little Annie Fanny, the Mole and the more obscure Anthony Adverse, together with caricatures of celebrities and politicians, studies of classic comics characters (including the iconic Wedding of Popeye and Olive Oyl), movie posters, assorted gag panels, anatomical and fine art studies, and pages upon pages of ingeniously realized doodles.

With examples ranging from Elder's early years at the High School of Music & Art and continuing into the 21st century, Chicken Fat is the ultimate indulgence for any Elder fan or cartoon enthusiast.

About the Author
Will Elder, one of America's greatest living cartoonists, was born in 1921 and resides in Monroe Township, NJ, with his wife of 50 years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (April 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560977043
• ISBN-13: 978-1560977049
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #654,295 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Collection of Will Elder Sketches, April 27, 2009

By	Watcher "listener" - See all my reviews

This book prints a collection of Elder's rough sketches, gag panel submissions that weren't accepted, gift art for friends and family, commissions, comic strip roughs both pencilled and inked, painted and illustrated preliminary roughs for magazine articles, doodles, and other personal ephemera. I usually am not a fan of these types of books, but I love Will Elder, and he puts a lot more work into his sketches than most artists.

The work is done in graphite, inks, watercolor, colored inks and colored pencils, and is presented in chronological order, with detailed notes about the work and putting it into historical and biographical context. Even Elder's doodles and roughs are detailed and interesting. Many of the rejected gag panels are funny, and even the ones that don't quite work, are well drawn with that Elder air of whimsey. There is preliminary work for Playboy in the collection, so there is plenty of pin-up and good girl art, and, of course, Lil Annie Fannie.

The volume is thin, but the production values are very high, as is usual with a Fantagraphics book - the respect the publisher has for the artist, and the art of cartooning, is palpable. The scans are so high res that you can see crinkles in the paper of some of the doodle pages. The colors sparkle. The book is printed on a high quality matte bond, and Elder's linework shines thru beautifully, even on pencilled work. It's amazing the detail, the depth of field, the use of deep space, the detailed anatomy that Elder uses even in his sketches. I believe Fantagraphics meant this collection as a supplement to their coffee table book, Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art, and is well worth picking up at less than cover price.