Jerry DeFuccio (July 3, 1925–August 10, 2001) was an American comic book writer and editor, known primarily for his work at
Mad, where he was an associate editor for 25 years. In addition to his work on that magazine, he was closely involved in many of the
Mad paperbacks, editing
Clods' Letters to Mad and many other reprints and spin-offs. Some of his contributions to EC Comics appeared under the pseudonym
Jerry Dee.
Guests and visitors to
Mad usually wound up chatting in DeFuccio's office. As noted by Mark Evanier:
- Anyone who visited the Mad offices during his years there probably met and spent time with Jerry. He was the magazine's historian, researcher and unofficial greeter. He was also a devout student of comic book history who was responsible for unearthing much that is today known about vintage funnybooks. He was very nice to me when I first ventured into the halls of Mad, as he was to just about everyone.
At EC Comics during the early 1950s, DeFuccio was an assistant editor and researcher on Harvey Kurtzman's war comics,
Frontline Combat and
Two-Fisted Tales, research that on one day involved taking a trip underwater in a submarine. He wrote scripts for EC and also contributed one-page text pieces to several EC titles. For
Frontline Combat he wrote "War Dance!" and "Belts n' Celts" (both illustrated by John Severin) and "Wolf!" (illustrated by Wally Wood). He later wrote scripts for the line of war comics published by DC Comics, including
Star Spangled War and
Our Fighting Forces.
DeFuccio's book introductions include Bud Blake's
Tiger (Grosset & Dunlap, 1969). As an expert on comic book history, he contributed to such publications as
Squa Tront,
Graphic Story Magazine,
The Comics Journal,
Wonderworld and
The Comic Book Price Guide. He also worked briefly for
Mad's rival,
Cracked, after leaving
Mad. DeFuccio died of cancer on August 10, 2001.