The 'net is loaded today with remembrances and hosannas for Mort Drucker. The must-read is the one from Tom Richmond, who succeeded Mort drawing movie and TV parodies for MAD. And Tom makes a good point that I made to a couple of reporters today…

For years, the most popular thing in MAD was probably those movie and TV parodies…but though they'd done occasional spoofs of films and teevee programs before, they didn't become a regular part of the magazine until Mort blossomed as a caricaturist. Once the MAD editors realized what they had in Mort, they were just about obligated to do satires of hit movies and TV shows. Didn't matter who was in them. Mort could draw them.

And he didn't just draw one caricature of each actor and copy them over and over, which is what you got in some of the lesser MAD imitations. In every panel, he drew stars of the film or show from different angles and he drew them the way they were in that particular project. When he drew John Wayne in MAD's version of True Grit, he didn't just draw John Wayne. He drew John Wayne in True Grit. From every angle. MAD staffer Jerry DeFuccio, who was sometimes in charge of digging up the photos Mort would use for reference once said, "Only I know how good Mort is because only I know how few photos we could sometimes get for him to use for reference." Just an amazing talent.

Mort Drucker, whose awesome skills at caricature were the envy of everyone who ever tried to draw a famous face, died last night at the age of 91. I have no details as to the cause of death but I can tell you a few things about Mort…

Mort began drawing comics in 1947 when Will Eisner, who had seen the young artist's work, recommended him to Bert Whitman who drew the newspaper strip, Debbie Dean. He was an assistant on that strip and several others until he joined the staff of National (now DC) Comics in the early fifties where he was a production artist doing "fixes" and such in the office.

His relationship with the company continued for years, even after he left the staff job and also freelanced drawing stories for other publishers. For DC, he often assisted Owen Fitzgerald, who drew comics like The Adventures of Bob Hope for them and he succeeded Fitzgerald as the artist of that comic. When I met Mort and mentioned I'd worked with Owen, he lit up and told me how much of "learning how to draw" he owed to that man.

He found his way to MAD magazine in 1956 at a precarious moment in that publication's history. Founding editor Harvey Kurtzman had departed and taken most of the art crew with him. Replacement editor Al Feldstein was assembling a new team and with no idea how valuable the new applicant would be to MAD, he took a shot with Drucker.

Mort had never thought of himself as a caricaturist but when called upon to draw the comedy team of Bob & Ray for some pieces, he displayed a flair that surprised even him. Before long, Mort was the illustrator of movie and TV parodies in every issue of MAD…an association that lasted some 55 years. Big stars would say that you didn't feel you'd made it in Hollywood until Mort Drucker had drawn you in MAD.

In the photo above, you see Mort receiving one of his many awards from his fellow cartoonists. He got a lot of them and most of his peers considered him the Gold Standard at celebrity likenesses. We will write more about him here in the days to come.

The gorgeous face resting on my shoulder in the above photo belonged to a gorgeous person named Carolyn Kelly who was my lady friend/companion/love for around twenty years with occasional time-outs. In that time, I believe there were three moments when we broke up permanently and forever and then, after missing each other for a few weeks, reunited. There were no more sabbaticals later because we became firmly unified in our fight against a common enemy: The cancer that was threatening — and ultimately took — her life. I lost her on 4/9/17.

Since then, I've thought of her often, often marveling at how sometimes it feels like my last moments with her were days ago and sometimes, decades ago.

For obvious reasons, she's on my mind when I'm working on the Pogo books, as I am this week. She loved that comic strip and not just because she loved its creator and not just because he was her father. I never met Walt Kelly so I can't hear him when I read it but I sometimes hear Carolyn. It's her sense of humor and often, her way of looking at life. Don't ask me to explain this because I can't. It's just there.

For the last 11 or so months of her life, she was in a nursing home and when she went in, I knew she would not be coming out. At the time, she didn't know that…or maybe didn't accept that…or maybe couldn't accept that. But slowly, she realized how it was going to end and I don't know if she realized it because the deterioration of her condition was escalating or if it escalated because she realized it. Probably a little of each.

In messages I wrote here after she died, I tried to explain some of the things I'd learned or decided upon with regard to losing a loved one. I believe some people overmourn (to coin a word) because they think a vast amount of visible anguish is expected of them. It seems to me that many people are too reticent to rethink their lives without the dearly departed so they just leave that huge hole. You can miss someone dearly without wearing your grief as a badge. This might be a good time to remember that and in the coming weeks especially.

Carolyn left me many things, some even tangible. For instance, I don't want to brag but I now own the world's largest collection of Walt Kelly's old phone bills. And she left me a project…finishing up the Pogo reprint series that she started. Most of all, she left me memories of her wonderful face and spirit and smile and laugh and so many things I learned from her. When someone close to you dies, you can keep all those things and still get on with your life. I am absolutely certain that she would be glad that I have. If you think for a second that she wouldn't have, you really didn't know this wonderful person.

Hey, how about some stand-up from John Oliver?

One of my favorite musicals of recent vintage is Something Rotten, which is probably not now playing anywhere you can see it, at least not in a polished professional production. But it's too good not to come back…somewhere…sometime. Below is a musical video that was made to promote it when it was on Broadway in 2015.

Christian Borle, who has become a star on the Great White Way, was playing William Shakespeare, who in this show was an egomaniacal, drunken plagiarist. I'm not saying this is what the real Will Shakespeare was and I'm not saying it's not. But in Something Rotten and in this video of one of the show's best songs, he is…

Yesterday, I had a brief appointment — nothing serious — with a doctor in Beverly Hills. I could have postponed it but I kinda liked the idea of getting out of the house for a bit…and unless I want to go to a market, which I don't, I really have nowhere else to go and doctor visits are a legit reason to be out. So I got dressed, went out and got in my car…and the battery was dead.

I'll deal with that in a few days when the rains are over. Instead, I called an Uber and during the ride, I was somewhat amazed at two things. One was how empty the streets were. The other was that only about half of the folks I saw on the sidewalks were masked. Most of 'em weren't really near anyone else but at some point, they might have been.

Everyone at the doctor's office had nose and mouth properly shielded — nurses, receptionists, other patients, the doctor himself and me. I was in and out in about ten minutes. If I'd driven, I was going to come home by way of the drive-thru at Pollo Loco but since I had to Uber home, I came straight back here, got back into my jammies and spent the day working on material for Volume 7 of Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips. Boy, there's some good stuff in this volume.

Otherwise, the isolation goes on. It's getting to feel like the norm and that's not necessarily a good thing.

• Joe Biden could win the election in a landslide. He just has to change his name to "Not Trump."

In my limited, clumsy attempts at cooking, I am constantly reminded — and scared-off from further attempts for a time — when I become aware how much I don't know. I didn't know the difference between baking powder and baking soda until I watched this video explanation from Alton Brown who, and I think this is in his job description, makes it sound a lot like all those chemistry lessons I didn't understand in high school. But I think I kinda maybe possibly get it now…

I voted for Bernie Sanders. I did not think he was the answer to the question, "Which candidate is a better bet to defeat Donald Trump?" but I thought he was the answer to "Which candidate would make the best president?" I guess we'll never know if he was either but I think he was a very influential figure in politics. Universal Health Care seems a lot more feasible today because of Bernie Sanders.

I will vote, of course, for whoever can beat Trump. I'd probably vote for you if you could. In past elections, I often heard the phrase, "Vote as if your life depended on the outcome." This time out, I think almost everyone will.

Seth Meyers with the kind of stories we need right now…

Here's a 1977 appearance by Rodney Dangerfield on Johnny Carson's show. Keep your eye on Johnny and you'll see one of the secrets of his success. He was not only willing to play straight man for another comedian, he actually enjoyed it. The whole spot at the desk would have been ruined if Johnny had tried to steer the conversation or insert a joke of his own. A lot of hosts would have thought, "Hey, it's my show, I'm supposed to get some laughs too."

Here's our pal Bob Bergen again, now demonstrating how he might create a new voice for a new character. As I told you back in this message, Bob's great at simulating voices done in the past by Mel Blanc and others but he's also great at baking from scratch.

If you're interested in how one goes about getting a career like Bob's, ask yourself if you have a range like Bob's. There is room in the field for someone who only has one voice if it's a great one. It didn't hurt my dear friend Lorenzo Music. But I think you can see how if you were a producer looking to cast voices for a new show, it certainly wouldn't be a waste of your time to have Bob Bergen come in…and guys like Bob really can come up with ideas and new sounds this fast.

Bob will not at all mind me saying that there are a number of performers like him out there…guys 'n' gals who can do this. When I was casting and voice-directing The Garfield Show, our core cast consisted of Frank Welker (who played Garfield), Gregg Berger (who was Odie), Wally Wingert (Jon) and sometimes Jason Marsden (Nermal) or Audrey Wasilewsky (Arlene) and a few other recurring roles. All of these folks were and are that versatile and could play many other roles along with their main ones.

I did hire other actors (including Mr. Bergen) to guest in certain episodes, mostly for variety and to bring some different kinds of energy to the recording sessions. But I could have done the show forever with just a couple of those men and a couple of those ladies. When they did the classic Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, four people — Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees and William Conrad — did all the voices — and I mean all.

In these darkest of days, you might need the kind of inspiration one can derive from a Rodgers and Hammerstein song. Here's the most inspirational one as performed by the quartet of Sonny Vande Putte, Sonny Vande Putte, Sonny Vande Putte and — singing lead — Sonny Vande Putte. You can tell the lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein because there's a mention of a lark in them. Mr. Hammerstein had a thing for larks. He found them inspirational and an easy rhyme.

Sonny Vande Putte, aka Sgt. Sonny, is one of those online guys who makes great videos harmonizing with himself. As one who couldn't harmonize with even one other person singing "Row, row, row your boat," I very much admire this skill…

I have to make a very quick trip out of the house later today. I have my mask and I have my little man-purse which contains another mask, a couple pairs of one-time-use gloves and a little vial of hand sanitizer. I should be out and back in about an hour and I'm kinda looking forward to it. The news is so full of tragic stories that I'd like the reminder that there are still other people in this world beyond those on my phone and computer screen, and that they're going about their lives.

Among the many maddening aspects of this crisis is that no one knows when it will end…and what will still be there (or will come back) when it does. We have lots of theories but no precedents. We also have way too many people who haven't a clue but are quite willing to present wild speculation as close-to-certain fact. Most of them are at least wise enough to leave themselves a tiny "out" if they're wrong. It's like if I said, "After extensive research and testing, I've concluded that the winning numbers in tomorrow's Fantasy Five lottery will be '13 18 20 25 31.' Of course, there's a slight chance I'm wrong…" Kind of worthless.

But I'm okay and when I say that, I'm not being insensitive to those out there who are not okay. I think it's important in times of rising not-okayness to remind each other that most of us are okay and will remain so; that the badness can be and is being avoided in most quarters. I'm eating. I'm sleeping. I'm getting things done. If you have the time to drop by this blog, you're probably doing those three things and if we keep doing them, we'll be fine. There's an end to this. I wish I knew when it will be but if I just focus on eating, sleeping and accomplishing something each day, I can wait it out. So can you.

Speaking of Las Vegas as I just was, here's a live webcam that will show you what it looks like on The Strip at this very minute. Every time I look at this, it seems eerier to me…