''Bill Elder'' (born September 22, 1921 in the Bronx, New York) is an American illustrator who worked in numerous areas of commercial art yet is best known for a zany cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzmans MAD Magazine comic book in 1952. Kurtzman and Elder met when they were students at New Yorks High School of Music and Art. In the late 1940s, the two teamed with Charles Stern to form the Charles William Harvey Studio, creating comics between 1948 and 1951 for Prize Comics and other publishers. At EC Comics, he inked John Severin's pencils on stories for Weird Fantasy, Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat and other EC titles.

Elder was one of the original five artists when Kurtzman created Mad in 1952, and his wacky panels, filled with background gags, immediately attracted attention. Whatever humorous slant Kurtzman devised in his layouts received a heightened hilarity and amplification when Elder sat down to draw the finished art, and Elder's insertion of background gags set the tone for the entire comic book. After Kurtzman and Elder left Mad, they continued to collaborate on many projects, notably the long-running feature Little Annie Fanny for Playboy.

Elder's ads, caricatures, cartoons, illustrations and stories were collected in the 392-page Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art (Fantagraphics, 2003).

"Frank N. Stein!" (Dep't: Terror) / art: W. Elder. in Mad, no. 8 (Dec.-Jan. 1953-1954)

Elder's ads, caricatures, cartoons, illustrations and stories were collected in the 392-page Will Elder: The Mad Playboy of Art (Fantagraphics, 2003).