The Late Mort Todd

Along with DAN CLOWES and RICK ALTERGOTT he contributed stories and art to the seminal PSYCHO COMICS. He sold his first screenplay for a TV pilot called THE ULTIMATES to a German production company while still a teenager. The pilot was produced, but never distributed and stars a young Dan Clowes as a teen rock 'n' roll superhero! Mort also wrote and penciled some stories for Dan's LLOYD LLEWELLYN series from Fantagraphics. Around then he started freelancing for DC, MARVEL COMICS, the infamous MYRON FASS and many other smaller publishers.

He became Editor-in-Chief of CRACKED magazine at 23 and worked with legendary artists like JOHN SEVERIN, BILL WARD and STEVE DITKO as well as helping start the mainstream careers of Altergott, Clowes and PETER BAGGE. A collection of Mort and Dan's UGGLY FAMILY strips from Cracked is forthcoming. Todd made headlines by getting renowned artist DON MARTIN to defect from MAD Magazine after a 32-year career there to join Cracked. Mort helped transform Cracked from a fifth-rate Mad clone into a third-rate one and tripled sales as Mad's steadily shrunk.

He created MONSTERS ATTACK!, an EC/WARREN hybrid comic magazine featuring many of the above artists along with ALEX TOTH, GENE COLAN and GRAY MORROW. Horror comics were supplemented with articles about movies and included one of the first interviews with director SAM RAIMI. At Cracked and Monsters Attack!, Mort wrote and drew stories and did the layouts for every cover.

Mort started his own imprint, AAA, which published the first authorized collection of Bill Ward's pin-ups in W.O.W. (World of Ward) and planned a new MR. A series by Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko which was never published due to lame pre-sales. AAA also published a bi-lingual humor comic called PEPITO with stories by SABRINA THE TEEN-AGE WITCH creator GEORGE GLADIR.

Mort later launched a line of music comics called MARVEL MUSIC at Marvel Comics, working personally 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. While there he also edited a series of pre-Comics Code horror and giant monster reprints from Marvel's storied past and developed the oversized COMIC BOOK by REN & STIMPY creator JOHN KRICFALUSI. He also got the AYN RAND estate to agree to do an ATLAS SHRUGGED graphic novel but unfortunately could not get Ditko to sign on.

As a writer, artist or editor, he has worked at just about every comic book company contributing to a variety of characters from SUPERMAN and SPIDER-MAN to licensed characters BARBIE and LOONEY TUNES. Newspaper comic strips Mort has written and drawn include SPEED RACER, RAT FINK and MOLLY THE MODEL. His illustrations have graced many CD covers, magazines, newspapers and ads.

There's now a MOLLY the MODEL MySpace Page with two new episodes a week. The strip is by Mort with finishes by CLIFF MOTT and PAT REDDING who also worked on the RAT FINK comic strip!

Mort has also had a long career in film, video and animation. He storyboarded many award-winning commercials and he has produced animation for DISNEY, SESAME STREET, CBS, MTV and COMCAST including an animated TV pilot featuring CHRISTOPHER WALKEN. Recently, Mort was Assistant Director on the live action film DISTRACTION and directed his first live action short, a gangster comedy called A CHANGE OF HEART. Mort also has other film projects in the works and is producer of THE DIABOLIKAL SUPER-KRIMINAL Documentary premiering in Italy at the RAVENNA NIGHTMARE FILM FESTIVAL in November, 2007.

Mort’s media company COMICFIX has developed licensed properties for publishing, film, TV and animation. Besides translating the SADISTIK photo novels and developing a live action SADISTIK film series, Mort is also adapting FREDRIC BROWN's noir novel THE SCREAMING MIMI into a graphic novel and screenplay. Other upcoming comic book projects include BAT LADY and collected editions of Molly the Model, BOB MARLEY: TALE OF THE TUFF GONG, PROTOPLASMAN and The Uggly Family. Recent work includes a comic booklet in the Wilmer Vaalderama DVD, THE DEAD ONE, a CD cover for JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION and their European tour poster. Even more recently Mort has illustrated for the new Tales from the Crypt comic, completed new comic books featuring Lucy Hell, Devilgirl and Mr. Krime. With his pal Cliff Mott, Mort has created and directed three new animated cartoons for Playboy.

Click on the image above to see more about The DIABOLIKAL SUPER-KRIMINAL DOCUMENTARY!