"Piracy" style art school exhibit

Mad artist and historical illustrator George Woodbridge created this drawing in May 1955 as an assignment at the Cartoonists & Illustrators Art School (later the School of Visual Arts) at the age of 24.

It's my guess that Woodbridge was influenced by EC's then current Piracy comic (which ran from 10/54 to 11/55), but that's conjecture on my part. Woodbridge did approach EC and began freelance work for Mad editor Al Feldstein in March 1957, where he joined "The Usual Gang of Idiots" for an impressive 44 year run.

This beautifully rendered drawing couples Woodbridge's equally skillful comics and history book illustration abilities, already in flower at an early age.


It's not unlikely that Woodbridge included this piece in his portfolio when approaching Al Feldstein for work at EC Comics. Just for LOLs, I mocked up a version of what the unreleased Piracy #8 would have looked like had Feldstein run Woodbridge's art as the cover. I'll trade my parallel universe and alternative reality for your multiverse.