ZINKOGNITO REVISITED: Favorite Artists: MAD's Angelo Torres

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Favorite Artists: MAD's Angelo Torres

Angelo Torres Cheesecake Art

People will sometimes ask me why my illustrations of girls always tend to have gals with real curvy hips and legs, and my answer is immediate: “Ah, That would be the influence of Angelo Torres!”, To which inevitably, the next thing the person usually asks is, “Who?!”

Readers of MAD Magazine in the seventies and eighties knew the format of each issue was pretty set. The magazine would start with a Movie spoof usually drawn by Mort Drucker, the middle of the magazine would feature Dave Berg’s “The Lighter Side Of…”, and the issue would end with a TV Sitcom spoof. The TV spoofs were almost always drawn by an artist named Angelo Torres, and I’ve always just loved how he drew women.

My first exposure to the greatness of Angelo’s work was way back in 1977 or so. I was an avid Charlie Angels fan, (owing to the fact that I was in love with Jaclyn Smith) and one day I was over at my friend Byron’s house after school, and he had the latest issue of MAD magazine featuring a beautifully rendered cover of Charlie's Angels by Jack Rickard, and a satire inside drawn by Torres! I immediately sat down and read it, and it was love at first sight!

Charlie's Angels, MAD #193

First off, His depiction of Jaclyn was right on, and furthermore, most of the s(tory had the girls running around in bikinis! (I’ve noticed that whenever anyone spoofs Charlie’s Angels, they always show the three girls in bikinis, but viewers will attest that Kate Jackson never went NEAR a bikini on the show…but I digress)

Maybe it was since the first girl I ever saw him draw was Kelly Garrett, but I became an instant fan right there, and from then on I would always recognize him as the guy that drew the Charlie’s Angels Spoof, and over time I noticed “That guy that always draws girls in bikinis ”, or at least It seemed, much to my delight!

Fantasy Island

One of the things I really dug was the gorgeous way he drew women of all different ethnicities, whether they be Spanish, Black, Asian, or just the good ol’ California girls, and it almost seemed like the script put in exotic bikini-clad women simply because they knew Angelo would be illustrating it!

Six Million Dollar Man,MAD #172, Hawaii 5-O, MAD#141

The girls were always drawn with special details in the face (eyes, lips), and MAN could he draw girls’ legs! I remember that every time an issue came out with a story featuring Angelo Torres’ art, I would buy it, and as I got older , I would try and try in vain to copy the drawings of those issues, attempting to emulate the style of the master himself. And I’m still trying to this day!

Here are more of my FAVORITE Angelo Torres "cheesecake" illustrations!