Al Jaffee, artist behind 50 years of Mad magazine Fold-Ins, dies at 102

By James On Apr 11, 2023

Al Jaffee, longtime cartoonist for Mad magazine and creator of the signature Fold-In on the back cover, died in Manhattan on April 10, reported the Washington Post. He was 102.

Known for his self-portraits in his Mad cartoons and recurring series such as “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” Jaffee was Mad’s longest-running contributor, appearing in the magazine from April 1964 to April 2013. published in that period with no new, original work by Jaffee, That reports a fan page keeping track of such appearances.

Jaffee was active for 22 years before joining Mad; his 72-year career as an artist was recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest career for a comic artist.

Jaffee was born on March 13, 1921 in Savannah, Georgia, and after a series of moves to and from his parents’ native Lithuania, finally settled in Queens, New York. After the Second World War he worked as an artist for the Ministry of War. he returned to New York to contribute to the humor books published by the predecessor of today’s Marvel Comics.

Jaffee’s first, one-off contributions to Mad predated its 50-year run that began in 1964. His best-known work, the Fold-In, was an instant success after Jaffee came up with the first gag for that year’s April issue.

An example of a Mad Fold-In, published in the 2011 anthology “The Mad Fold-In Collection.” Art by, of course, Al Jaffee

Image: Al Jaffee/Mad Magazine

A solved Fold-In that reveals Al Jaffee's greatest fear — And voilá, here is the solution.

The collapsible one basically a humor puzzle; readers take the back cover of the magazine, fold it in thirds and connect the two outer thirds to reveal a secret clue and illustration.

Jaffee said in several interviews that the Fold-In began as a kind of satire of the high-quality color photo, “gatefold” fold-outs in magazines such as National Geographic and, of course, Playboy. Over half a century of making Fold-Ins, the feature appeared in several pop culture references, including a cameo in ET The alienand as a visual clue to a Danger! ask.

Jaffee won a 1972 Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society especially for the Fold-In. He won Reubens in other categories in 1971, 1975, and 1979. In 2008, he was honored by the NCS with Reuben’s Cartoonist of the Year, and received the Will Eisner Hall of Fame Award in 2013.

Mad magazine stopped publishing original content in 2019, but came out of hiatus in October 2022 for a 70th anniversary retrospective featuring a tribute to Jaffee written by “Weird Al” Yankovic. Crazy artist Johnny Sampson contributed a special two-page Mad Fold-In for that song.