RIP - Al Jaffee

[BustedFinger]

I'm sure most of you had heard this but thought that Al Jaffee deserves a post in a forum dedicated to satire and parody.  Al Jaffee died at the age of 102 on April 10, 2023.  Jaffee was the longest continuous contributor to Mad magazine and the fold-in inside the back cover is, IMO, one of the most iconic humor mag features.

How many times did you pull a Mad off the magazine rack and find that someone had already folded in the fold-in?  How many times were you the one who folded it in!!  I have to admit that I did that more than once!!  I even drew a few of my own fold-ins back in the day kind of like a lot of drew our own Wackys!

There are plenty of articles about him but I found this one to be very interesting and informative:

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/j/jaffee_al.htm

[BattleCaps]

I haven't heard that name in ages.

 I was more a Cracked Magazine person that a Mad, but that being said I had a couple dozen Mad Magazine and loved the fold ins.

Thanks for the link.

[Alexeirex]

One of my Mad heroes...RIP
A

[freetoes]

RIP to a legend. I wondered how much of a factor the fold-ins were in limiting the number of back issues in pristine condition.

[MoldRush]

I'm sure most of you had heard this but thought that Al Jaffee deserves a post in a forum dedicated to satire and parody.  Al Jaffee died at the age of 102 on April 10, 2023.  Jaffee was the longest continuous contributor to Mad magazine and the fold-in inside the back cover is, IMO, one of the most iconic humor mag features.

How many times did you pull a Mad off the magazine rack and find that someone had already folded in the fold-in?  How many times were you the one who folded it in!!  I have to admit that I did that more than once!!  I even drew a few of my own fold-ins back in the day kind of like a lot of drew our own Wackys!

There are plenty of articles about him but I found this one to be very interesting and informative:

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/j/jaffee_al.htm

Thanks for posting this.  I was not aware he passed, but did know he was at least well into his 90s, so the news while sad is not entirely shocking.

I was also fascinated with the fold-ins enough to try and create my own.  Wasn’t that hard to conjure up a concept and gag, but finishing the art between the arrows with enough details and distractions to make the gag less obvious was the challenging part.

I received his autobiography as a Christmas gift a few years back.  An interesting read for sure, but not at all what I expected - a very tough childhood living in Lithuania during WW2.

Al’s passing leaves very few if any of the 1970’s-era UGOI (Usual Gang of Idiots) still with us.  I think possibly Angelo Torres is still around, but he may be the only one.

RIP to a unique talent and creator of many iconic images that float around in my head to this day.

[mikecho]

RIP to a legend. I wondered how much of a factor the fold-ins were in limiting the number of back issues in pristine condition.

Oh yes, indeed, that would've been a problem. Definitely a problem.

May Al rest in peace and may the Lord have mercy on his soul.

[BustedFinger]

RIP to a legend. I wondered how much of a factor the fold-ins were in limiting the number of back issues in pristine condition.

Interesting that you mention that.  When Jaffee came up with the idea for the fold-ins, he was afraid that the editors would not allow it because it would mutilate the magazine.  But the editors were enthusiastic about the idea because they were thinking that customers would buy two copies.  One to fold-in and one to keep in original condition!

[MoldRush]

RIP to a legend. I wondered how much of a factor the fold-ins were in limiting the number of back issues in pristine condition.

I’ve built up a small collection of mostly 70s issues through comic shops and eBay over the years, and I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised at the frequency in which the back covers are not creased at all.  But that’s not as encouraging as it sounds, because in the majority of cases the magazines still had enough general wear and tear to knock the grade down to a VG at best.  Unlike comic books which are usually only read once or twice, MADs seem to get re-read over and over.  The number of loose covers and coverless copies from the 60s and 70s seem to support that notion.  Add to that the fact that most covers from that era had white backgrounds, which really show soiling, stains, water drops, etc, and you can see there were many factors working against most copies staying in top grades.