Mort Todd[1] (born Michael Delle-Femine, November 9, 1961)[2] is an American writer and media entrepreneur, best known as an editor-in-chief of Cracked magazine, and later, Marvel Music. He is owner of Comicfix, a media company that has developed licensed properties.
| Mort Todd | |
|---|---|
 Todd in April 2016 | |
| Born | November 9, 1961 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Publisher, Animator, Filmmaker, Music producer, Actor |
| Pseudonym(s) | E. O'Brain, Eel O'Brian, Eel O'Brian[1] |
Notable works | Cracked Comicfix Charlton Neo |
| Official website | |
As a writer, artist or editor, Todd has worked at several comic book companies, contributing to characters including Superman and Spider-Man, and to licensed properties such as Barbie and Looney Tunes. His illustrations appear on CD covers, magazines, newspapers, and print advertisements.
Career
editEarly work
editWith Daniel Clowes, Pete Friedrich and Rick Altergott, Mort Todd contributed stories and art to Psycho Comics. He sold his first screenplay for a TV pilot called The Ultimates to a German production company while still a teenager.[citation needed] The pilot was produced, but never distributed, and stars a young Clowes as a teen rock 'n' roll superhero.[citation needed] Mort also wrote and penciled some stories for Clowes' Lloyd Llewellyn series from Fantagraphics. Around then he started freelancing for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Kitchen Sink, Myron Fass, and many other smaller publishers.
Since 1983, he illustrated all eight volumes of Back from the Grave (Crypt Records), a compilation series of obscure proto-punk rock from the 1960s. The original art to the cover of Volume One is on permanent display at the Cornell University Punk Archive Collection.[3]
In 1985, Todd became editor-in-chief of Cracked magazine. There he signed artist Don Martin after a 32-year career at Mad Magazine.[4] Todd also published some of the earliest mainstream work of Altergott, Clowes, and Peter Bagge.[citation needed]
For Globe Communications, Todd created the comics magazine Monsters Attack!,[5] which featured horror comics and articles about movies. It ran five issues (Sept. 1989 - Dec. 1990), with Todd involved with the first four.[6]
Todd launched the imprint AAA, which published the first authorized collection of Bill Ward's pin-ups in W.O.W. (World of Ward). AAA also published a bilingual humor comic called Pepito with stories by writer George Gladir.[citation needed]
Marvel Comics
editIn 1994, Todd launched a line of music comics called Marvel Music at Marvel Comics, working with such artists as Kiss, Rob Zombie, The Rolling Stones, KRS-One, and the estates of Elvis Presley and Bob Marley. Some of the talent working on these books included Neil Gaiman, Kyle Baker, Dan Barry, Severin, Colan, and Morrow.[7]
While at Marvel, Todd also edited a series of pre-Comics Code horror and giant monster reprints (Curse of the Weird and Monster Menace),[5] and developed the oversized Comic Book by Ren & Stimpy-creator John Kricfalusi.[citation needed]
In 2005, Todd rejoined Cracked magazine, this time as a contributing editor, but left after several months.[8]
Todd has written and illustrated for the new Tales from the Crypt comic series, and completed new comic books featuring "Lucy Hell, Devilgirl", "The Secret Society", and the French/English language "Mr. Krime", the last written by Martyrs of Pop's Jean-Emmanuel Dubois. With his longtime collaborator Cliff Mott, Todd has created and directed three animated cartoons for Playboy.[9]
Film and TV
editTodd has storyboarded commercials and produced animation for Walt Disney, Sesame Street, CBS, MTV, and Comcast, including an animated TV pilot featuring Christopher Walken.[10]
Todd was assistant director on the live-action film Distraction,[11] and directed his first live-action short, a gangster comedy called A Change of Heart.[citation needed] He is producer of The Diabolikal Super-Kriminal documentary, which had its world premiere in Italy at the Ravenna Nightmare Film Festival in November 2007,[12] and its U.S. premiere at San Diego Comic-Con in July, 2009. The film was awarded a Special Mention at the convention and in November, 2011, won the "Golden Lobster" Director's Award at the Portland Maine Film Festival.[13] He has directed music videos for cartoonist Peter Bagge's Seattle band Can You Imagine?,[14] the psychobilly band Psycho Charger,[15] the Spanish Help Me Devil[16][17] as well as an animated tease for his animated Sadistik: Strip & Kill web series.[18] He also provided some animation for the documentary Arias with a Twist, directed by Bobby Sheehan.[citation needed]
Comicfix and Station A
editThe first work from Todd’s media company, Comicfix, was a trio of comic strips appearing in the New York Post, starting in 2000: Speed Racer, written and drawn by Mort; Celebrity Biografix by Mort and John Severin; and an interactive soap opera comic, Molly the Model by Mort, Cliff Mott and Pat Redding.[19] His illustrations appear on CD covers, magazines, newspapers and print advertisements.[citation needed]
Other work includes a comic booklet in the Wilmer Valderrama DVD, The Dead One (a.k.a. El Muerto); a CD cover for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the European tour poster and videos for his band with Matt Verta-Ray, Heavy Trash.[20] Comicfix also published the three issue run of Holy Terror by Jason Caskey & Phil Hester that was started at Image Comics but was never completed there.[citation needed]
In late 2011, Mort started Station A, a media company in Portland, Maine, that creates print advertising and comics,[21] as well as a live action TV commercial he directed for Nosh Kitchen Bar that stirred a local controversy for its depiction of vegans.[22] as did an animated commercial for Taco Escobarr.[21][23]
In July 2012, Tood launched a weekly humor magazine, Vex.[24]
On April 1, 2013, Todd perpetrated a hoax with the supposed discovery of a trove of 1950s horror comics from the fictitious Zeus Comics.[25][26] The following day he announced it as a hoax to promote a publishing project.[27]
Beginning in 2014, Comicfix began publishing The Charlton Arrow.[28] As more and more creators got involved, including some original Charlton Comics veterans, the publication became a color comic and moved to the Charlton Neo imprint where Mort became publisher and editor-in-chief.[29]
ACE Comics
editIn 2013, Mort Todd relaunched ACE Comics with publisher Ron Frantz, who had published the line in the 1980s.[30] Todd had contributed to ACE in 1987, collaborating on the comic Return of the Skyman with legendary illustrator Steve Ditko.[31]
The first new ACE Comics release was The Return of the Original Skyman Pencil Portfolio, advertised as a 25th Anniversary Collectors’ Edition. It is unique in that the original pencil pages of artist Steve Ditko are printed next to the finished ink pages embellished by Rick Altergott.[32]
The second title was Kill the Face!, reprinting the revival of the Golden Age of Comic Books character The Face, which Frantz released in the 1980s, with story by Joe Gill and art by Ditko with a cover by Alex Toth. As well as editing the book, Todd colored the collected issues, having been originally published in black and white.[33]
Another series being released by ACE is Classic Hot Rods and Racing Car Comics, a reprint series collecting the original Charlton Comics series, written and drawn by Jack Keller.[34]
Bibliography
edit- (as Michael Delle-Femine) Monster Party (Cracked digest, volume 2) (Globe Communications, 1987)
- The Joker's Joke Book (Tom Doherty Associates, 1988) ISBN 0-8125-7125-8
- Woodstock, 1969-1994 (Marvel Music, 1994) ISBN 0-7851-0075-X — written with Charles Schneider, illustrated by Pat Redding
- Over 100 Traits of Truly Horrible People: How to Be a Better Person, (Radius Press, 2000) ISBN 0-942154-44-4
References
edit- ^ a b Bails, Jerry; Ware, Hames, eds. "Delle-Femine, Michael". Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015.
{{cite web}}:|first2=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comics Buyer's Guide (1485). Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
- ^ [1] The library that never sleeps: 24/7 access, on campus and around the world
- ^ "MAD cartoonist Don Martin dies. The humor artist known for wacky words and sick jokes succumbs to cancer at age 68," Salon.com (January 7, 2000). Archived September 5, 2001, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Mort Todd at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ Monsters Attack (cover logo: Monsters Attack!) at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ Considine, J.D. "Comics That Rock -- It's Not The New Music Video - Yet - But The Comic Book Has Become A Hot Marketing Tool For Top Names In Rock," The Baltimore Sun (July 10, 1994).
- ^ Arnold, Mark. If You're Cracked, You're Happy.
- ^ "Watch Bunni Power Sexy Superhero animated video on aniboom". Archived from the original on 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2012-03-18. Bunni Power - Sexy Superhero aniboom.com
- ^ [2] Christopher Walken Lost Cartoon - Sings & Dances youtube.com
- ^ [3] Distraction Full Cast & Crew imdb.com
- ^ "Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest" press release Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine, Stradanove.net (October 25, 2007).
- ^ "News Pile: Portland Maine Film Festival announces festival winners | MaineToday.com". Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2012-03-18. Portland Maine Film Festival announces festival winners mainetoday.com
- ^ [4] DRIVE by Can You Imagine? with Peter Bagge, Directed by Mort Todd youtube.com
- ^ [5] They Call Him SADISTIK! - Psycho Charger youtube.com
- ^ [6] Girls Today Don't Like to Sleep Alone - Help Me Devil youtube.com
- ^ [7] Free of Your Spell - Help Me Devil directed by Mort Todd youtube.com
- ^ [8] SADISTIK! Strip & Kill Animation Teaser 2011 youtube.com
- ^ "New York Pulse: Golly It's Molly & You Can Meet Her". 'New York Post. January 29, 2001.
- ^ [9] Heavy Trash "Way Out" Redux youtube.com
- ^ a b [10] station-a.com
- ^ "Sneaky burger: Nosh tricks vegetarians into eating meat...in a new commercial | the Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram". Archived from the original on 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2012-08-07. Sneaky burger: Nosh tricks vegetarians into eating meat...in a new commercial pressherald.com
- ^ [11][permanent dead link] Tex-Mex flavors come alive, and kick you right in the pants, at Taco Escobarr themainemag.com
- ^ [12] Comics Man Reveals His Edge
- ^ [13] Long Lost Controversial Zeus Comics to be Displayed
- ^ [14] Zeus Comics On Display
- ^ [15] Comic Relief? Todd says Hoax Served Serious Purpose
- ^ Comicfix (publisher)} at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ [16] Charlton Neo Home Page
- ^ [17] ACE Comics home page
- ^ [18] Return of the Skyman
- ^ [19] The Return of the Original Skyman Pencil Portfolio
- ^ [20] Kill the Face!
- ^ ACE Comics Classic Hot Rods and Racing Car Comics
External links
edit
- Official website
- Mort Todd at IMDb
- Michael Delle-Femine and (misspelled) Michael Della-Femine at the Grand Comics Database