| Mort Todd | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 9, 1961 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Publisher, Animator, Filmmaker, Music producer, Actor |
| Pseudonym(s) | Michael Delle-Femine[1] |
| Notable works | Cracked magazine Marvel Music Comicfix |
| Official website | |
Mort Todd (born November 9, 1961,[2] in Maine), is an American who has spent his career in comics, animation and entertainment, notably as the editor-in-chief of Cracked magazine, and later, Marvel 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 and Spider-Man to licensed properties such as Barbie and Looney Tunes. Newspaper comic strips Todd has written and drawn include Speed Racer, Rat Fink, and Molly the Model.[3] His illustrations appear on many CD covers, magazines, newspapers and ads.
Todd has storyboarded commercials and produced animation for Walt Disney, Sesame Street, CBS, MTV, and Comcast, including an animated TV pilot featuring Christopher Walken.
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Todd was raised in the state of Maine, 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 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 garage punk album covers from Crypt Records. Many record labels created knock-offs, and Mort re-created the first cover for a new album from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. 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 and Rick Altergott, 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 series from Fantagraphics. Around then he started freelancing for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Kitchen Sink, Myron Fass, and many other smaller publishers.
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.[4] Todd also worked with notable artists like John Severin, Bill Ward, and Steve Ditko, and published some of the earliest mainstream work of Altergott, Clowes, and Peter Bagge.
Todd created Monsters Attack!, an EC Comics/Warren Publishing 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. Todd wrote and drew stories for Cracked and Monsters Attack!, and did the layouts for every cover.
Todd 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 weak pre-sales. AAA also published a bilingual humor comic called Pepito with stories by Sabrina the Teenage Witch-creator George Gladir.
In 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.[5]
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 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 noted Objectivist Steve Ditko to sign on.
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 Nightmare Film Festival in November 2007,[6] and its U.S. premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con in July, 2009.
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 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, All-Protoplasman Color Cavalcade and "The Uggly Family." Recent work includes a comic booklet in the Wilmer Valderrama DVD, The Dead One (aka El Muerto, a CD cover for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and their European tour poster.
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.