Mort Todd is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 who has spent his career in comics, animation and entertainment, notably as the editor-in-chief of Cracked magazine, and later, Marvel Music

Marvel Music

Marvel Music has been an imprint of Marvel Comics, former music publishing subsidiaries, Mighty Marvel Music Inc. and Marvel Music Group and the current Marvel Music, Inc., appearent holder of copyrights to Marvel Studio's movie music....

. He is the owner of Comicfix, a media company that has developed licensed properties for publishing, film, TV, and animation.

As a writer, artist or editor, Todd has worked at several comic book companies, contributing to a variety of characters, including Superman

Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

 and Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

 to licensed properties such as Barbie

Barbie

Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....

 and Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...

. Newspaper comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

s Todd has written and drawn include Speed Racer

Speed Racer

Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...

, Rat Fink

Rat Fink

Rat Fink is one of the several hot-rod characters created by one of the originators of Kustom Kulture, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Roth conceived Rat Fink as an anti-hero answer to Mickey Mouse...

, and Molly the Model. His illustrations appear on many CD covers, magazines, newspapers and ads.

Todd has storyboarded commercials and produced animation for Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

, Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

, CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

, and Comcast

Comcast

Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

, including an animated TV pilot featuring Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...

.

Early career

Todd was raised in the state of Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

, where he cultivated a keen interest in all media. As a youth, he started drawing and writing comics, and a stint as editor of his camp newspaper foreshadowed his later career. In high school he drew advertisements and record covers for local clubs and bands and created the Stiv Bators

Stiv Bators

Stiv Bators , was an American punk rockvocalist and guitarist from Youngstown, Ohio. He is best remembered for his bands, The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church.- Music and film career :...

 logo still being used for the late Dead Boys' solo career.

As a teen, he moved to New York City and began creating the classic Back from the Grave

Back from the Grave

Back from the Grave is the fifth album by the Swedish death metal band Grave. It was released in 2002 on Century Media after a long hiatus.-Track listing:#"Intro" – 0:43#"Rise" – 5:25#"Behold the Flames" – 4:32#"Dead Is Better" – 3:48...

 garage punk

Garage punk

Garage punk is a fusion of garage rock and punk rock. It is fast-paced lo-fi music characterized by a dirty, choppy guitar sound—usually played by bands who are on independent record labels or who are unsigned...

 album covers from Crypt Records

Crypt Records

Crypt Records is a Hamburg-based record label and record store founded by Tim Warren. The label is perhaps best known for issuing the eight-volume Back From The Grave Series of garage rock compilations, although its reissues and releases include surf, rockabilly, punk rock, exotica, garage punk,...

. Many record labels created knock-offs, and Mort re-created the first cover for a new album from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are an American alternative rock trio, formed in 1991 and based out of New York City, New York. The band consists of Judah Bauer on guitar, backing vocals, harmonica and occasional lead vocals, Russell Simins on drums and Jon Spencer on vocals, guitar and theremin...

. During this time he was bringing in a regular pay check as a telephone sales person for J & R Music World under his real name Michael dela Femina (delle femine). Mort Todd is a combination of the Latin and German words for DEATH and was an apt choice considering the gothic material in which he dealt.

Along with Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes

Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....

 and Rick Altergott

Rick Altergott

Rick Altergott is a professional illustrator and cartoonist, residing in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, with his wife, fellow cartoonist Ariel Bordeaux. Their collaborative comic book Raisin Pie is published by Fantagraphics....

, Todd 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 Clowes as a teen rock 'n' roll superhero. Mort also wrote and penciled some stories for Clowes' Lloyd Llewellyn

Lloyd Llewellyn

Lloyd Llewellyn is a comic book by Daniel Clowes. The black-and-white series, published by Fantagraphics Books, ran for six issues from April 1986 to June 1987...

series from Fantagraphics. Around then he started freelancing for DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

, Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

, Kitchen Sink

Kitchen Sink Press

Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...

, Myron Fass

Myron Fass

Myron Fass was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books, operating from the 1950s through the 1990s under a multitude of company names, including M. F. Enterprises and Eerie Publications. At his height in the 1970s, Fass was known as the biggest — and sleaziest — multi-title...

, and many other smaller publishers.

Cracked and Monsters Attack!

In 1985, Todd became Editor-in-Chief of Cracked magazine at age 23, and sales allegedly improved. While at Cracked, Todd made headlines by signing renowned artist Don Martin after a 32-year career at Mad Magazine. Todd also worked with notable artists like John Severin

John Severin

John Powers Severin is an American comic book artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat; for Marvel Comics, primarily on its war and Western comics; and for the satiric magazine Cracked...

, Bill Ward

Bill Ward (comics)

William Hess Ward , known as Bill Ward, was an American cartoonist notable as a good girl artist and creator of the risqué comics character Torchy.-Early life and career:...

, and Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko

Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange....

, and published some of the earliest mainstream work of Altergott, Clowes, and Peter Bagge

Peter Bagge

Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...

.

Todd created Monsters Attack!, an EC Comics

EC Comics

Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...

/Warren Publishing

Warren Publishing

Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades...

 hybrid comic magazine featuring many of the above artists, along with Alex Toth

Alex Toth

Alexander Toth was an American professional cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but is known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The...

, Gene Colan

Gene Colan

Eugene Jules "Gene" Colan was an American comic book artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics, where his signature titles include the superhero series, Daredevil, the cult-hit satiric series Howard the Duck, and The Tomb of Dracula, considered one of comics' classic horror series...

 and Gray Morrow

Gray Morrow

Dwight Graydon "Gray" Morrow was an American illustrator of paperback books and comics.-Biography:Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Morrow is best known as art director of Spider-Man between 1967 and 1970 and as illustrator of the syndicated Tarzan, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant comic...

. Horror comics were supplemented with articles about movies, and included one of the first interviews with director Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi

Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...

. Todd wrote and drew stories for Cracked and Monsters Attack!, and did the layouts for every cover.

AAA

Todd started his own imprint, AAA, which published the first authorized collection of Bill Ward

Bill Ward (comics)

William Hess Ward , known as Bill Ward, was an American cartoonist notable as a good girl artist and creator of the risqué comics character Torchy.-Early life and career:...

's pin-ups in W.O.W. (World of Ward) and planned a new Mr. A

Mr. A

Mr. A is a fictional comic book hero created by Steve Ditko. Unlike most of his work, the character of Mr. A and the Mr. A stories remain the property of Ditko, all of which were written and illustrated by himself. The character first appeared in Witzend #3, 1967. Mr. A's name comes from "A is A",...

series by Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

creator Steve Ditko, which was never published due to weak pre-sales. AAA also published a bilingual humor comic called Pepito with stories by Sabrina the Teenage Witch-creator George Gladir

George Gladir

George Gladir is an American writer for comic books. Primarily known as a scripter for Archie Comics, he co-created that publisher's character Sabrina the Teenage Witch, with artist Dan DeCarlo.-Biography:...

.

Marvel Comics

In 1994, Todd launched a line of music comics called Marvel Music

Marvel Music

Marvel Music has been an imprint of Marvel Comics, former music publishing subsidiaries, Mighty Marvel Music Inc. and Marvel Music Group and the current Marvel Music, Inc., appearent holder of copyrights to Marvel Studio's movie music....

 at Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

, working with such artists as Kiss

KISS (band)

Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...

, Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...

, The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

, KRS-One

KRS-One

Lawrence Krisna Parker , better known by his stage names KRS-One , and Teacha, is an American rapper...

, and the estates of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 and Bob Marley

Bob Marley

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

. Some of the talent working on these books included Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

, Kyle Baker

Kyle Baker

Kyle John Baker is an American cartoonist, comic book writer-artist, and animator known for his graphic novels and for a 2000s revival of the series Plastic Man....

, Dan Barry, Severin, Colan, and Morrow.

While at Marvel, Todd also edited a series of pre-Comics Code horror and giant monster reprints (Curse of the Weird and Monster Menace) from Marvel's past, and developed the over-sized Comic Book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

by Ren & Stimpy-creator John Kricfalusi

John Kricfalusi

Michael John Kricfalusi , better known as John K., is a Canadian animator. He is creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, its adults-only spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", The Ripping Friends animated series, and Weekend Pussy Hunt, which was billed as "the world's first interactive web-based...

. He also got the Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

 estate to agree to do an Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...

graphic novel, but unfortunately could not get noted Objectivist

Objectivism (Ayn Rand)

Objectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...

 Steve Ditko to sign on.

Film and TV

Todd was assistant director on the live action film Distraction and directed his first live action short, a gangster comedy called A Change of Heart. Todd also has other film projects in the works, and is producer of The Diabolikal Super-Kriminal documentary, which had its world premiere in Italy at the Ravenna

Ravenna

Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...

 Nightmare Film Festival in November 2007, and its U.S. premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con in July, 2009.

Comicfix

Todd’s media company, Comicfix, has developed licensed properties for publishing, film, TV, and animation. Besides translating the Sadistik photo novels, developing a live action Sadistik film series and animated web series, Todd is also adapting the Fredric Brown

Fredric Brown

Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....

 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

Bob Marley

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

: Tale of the Tuff Gong, All-Protoplasman

Protoplasman

Protoplasman is a Big Bang Comics superhero, who first appeared in Big Bang's self-published issue, Big Bang Presents #1, though his metafictional debut was in Policeman Comics , itself a division of Quantity Comics , created by writer Gary Carlson and artist Mort...

 Color Cavalcade and "The Uggly Family." Recent work includes a comic booklet in the Wilmer Valderrama

Wilmer Valderrama

Wilmer Eduardo Valderrama is an American actor and television personality, known for the role of Fez in the sitcom That '70s Show, hosting the MTV series Yo Momma, and voicing the character of Manny in the children's show Handy Manny.-Early life:Valderrama was born in Miami, Florida the son of...

 DVD, The Dead One (aka El Muerto

El Muerto

El Muerto , also known as El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie, is a fictional character and comic book superhero created by American comics creator Javier Hernandez and published through his own imprint Los Comex...

, a CD cover for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion are an American alternative rock trio, formed in 1991 and based out of New York City, New York. The band consists of Judah Bauer on guitar, backing vocals, harmonica and occasional lead vocals, Russell Simins on drums and Jon Spencer on vocals, guitar and theremin...

 and their European tour poster.

Return to Cracked

In 2005, Todd rejoined Cracked magazine, this time as a contributing editor. But several months later, Todd parted company with the revamped magazine, complaining about low pay rates and work-for-hire issues of copyright.

odd has written and illustrated for the new Tales from the Crypt comic series, and completed new comic books featuring Lucy Hell, Devilgirl and Mr. Krime. With his long-time collaborator Cliff Mott, Todd has created and directed three new animated cartoons for Playboy

Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

.

External links