Gerry Gersten

Gerry Gersten (October 17, 1927 – January 12, 2017) was a political caricaturist, known for his pencil on vellum technique.

Gersten emerged as a noted caricaturist in the 1960s, for his illustrations books and magazines such as The New York Times, New York, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Esquire. Beginning in 1986 he began illustrating features for Mad, illustrating 39 features for that publication until 2001.

Both football player Joe Namath and then-U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush so liked Gersten's caricatures of them that they each requested personal copies of them, with Bush in particular calling Gersten's rendition of him a "masterpiece", the original of which Gersten gave to Bush as a gift.

Early life Gerry Gersten was born October 17, 1927, in New York City

Career Gersten emerged as a noted caricaturist in the 1960s, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Esquire.

In 1985 Mad co-editors John Ficarra and Meglin were searching for new artists for the magazine, specifically for craftsmen with unique styles that could expand the boundaries of what was generally thought of as Mad art. Ficarra came across a copy of the New York Times Book Review containing a book club ad featuring Gersten's caricatures of writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allan Poe. After Meglin related to Ficarra his positive assessment of Gersten based on his art and his prior interview of him for his 1973 book, the two editors put Gersten in a list of artists to consider. A few weeks later, contributing writer Frank Jacobs submitted a parody President Ronald Reagan composed in the style of the Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven" called "The Reagan", Seeing an opportunity to have Gersten's art appear in Mad and thus effect a new look for the magazine (something they would eventually refer to as an "impact piece"), they hired him to illustrate the feature. Unlike the stanza-by-stanza multi-panel layout that typified the magazine at the time, the entire poem was printed on one page, while the entire opposite page was devoted to Gersten's illustration, which the editors were pleased with. Over the next 23 years, Gersten illustrated 39 articles for Mad, including numerous other impact pieces. He also redefined the recurring feature "The MAD Nasty File".

Personal life and death Gersten lived for a period in Weston, Connecticut, before ultimately moving to Ridgefield, Connecticut. He had a son, a daughter, Jill Gersten-Reitman, and two grandchildren.

Gersten died on January 12, 2017, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Mad included a tribute to Gersten and his career in issue 545 of that publication. His funeral was held in Hawthorne, New York.