I’m still speechless at the thought of Will Elder’s passing this week. There have been some intelligent and heartfelt obituaries, but the only way to truly appreciate him is to look at his work. Wild, gutsy and yet utterly in control; no one ever worked so exactingly to achieve anarchy. Harvey Kurtzman, of course, was the brains of their long collaboration – but Elder was its soul. Trying to summarize his achievement in words is as useless as reviewing a natural phenomenon.

filed under Bemusements