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Al Jaffee, MAD Magazine Cartoonist, Dead at 102

By | April 11th, 2023
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Self-portrait of Jaffee (above) from the cover of “MAD: Fold This Book! A Ridiculous Collection of Fold-Ins.”

Al Jaffee in 2016

The Associated Press and many other outlets report that legendary MAD Magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee died yesterday Monday, April 10, at the age of 102. Jaffee was the creator of the magazine’s Fold-In feature, which consisted of drawings that were folded vertically and, when opened, revealed a new picture along with a new caption. Having worked as a cartoonist from 1942 until his retirement in 2020, he held the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a comics artist.

Allan “Al” Jaffee was born Abraham Jaffee in Savannah, Georgia, on March 13, 1921. His parents, Morris and Mildred, were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. Jaffee and his three brothers spent much of their childhood between Lithuania and the United States with their mother and father, respectively. In the late 1930s, Jaffee attended the High School of Music and Art alongside some of the individuals he would later work with at MAD Magazine, including Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder.

Jaffee started his career as a comic book artist in 1942, working on multiple publications for Timely and Atlas Comics. He co-created the Inferior Man and Ziggy Pig & Silly Seal features at Timely with another future MAD cartoonist, Dave Berg. During the war, Jaffee worked as an artist for the military, with his first contribution in the role being to provide the floor plan for the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. He took advantage of the military’s free name changing service, changing his name initially to “Alvin Jaffee” by mistake, before correcting it to “Allan Jaffee.”

After the war, Jaffee returned to Timely Comics and spent a year-and-a-half editing humor and teenager comics for the publisher, including the Patsy Walker line of books. Jaffee drew the “Tall Tales” panels for the New York Herald Tribune from 1957 to 1963 and these were syndicated into over 100 other newspapers. He also scripted “Debbie Deere” and “Jason” in the late 1960s and 1970s.

A fold-in from 1964's 'MAD' #87, where Richard Nixon is revealed to be the answer to the question of which candidate Republican rivals compromised on

Jaffee’s most prolific work though, came at MAD. He started in 1955, one issue prior to its transformation from comic book to magazine. However, Jaffee shortly left MAD after with Kurtzman, contributing to both of his next endeavours, Trump and Humbug. In 1958, when Humbug ceased publication, Jaffee sold his unpublished works to MAD. In 1964, Jaffee created his longest running feature in MAD Magazine, the Fold-In. From this point onwards until 2017, the Fold-In featured in almost every issue of the magazine. Jaffee received the Special Features Reuben Award for his Fold-Ins in 1972.

Through into 2018, Jaffee’s Fold-Ins continued, and he also provided additional artwork for articles. He became the longest-running contributor to the magazine. Jaffee’s huge contribution to cartooning was recognised by two organizations in recent years, with him being inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013, and the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 2014.

Jaffee was married to Ruth Ahlquist from 1945 to 1967. He married his second wife, Joyce Revenson, in 1977; she passed away in 2020. He is survived by his two children from his first marriage, Richard and Debbie; his two stepdaughters, Tracey and Jody; five grandchildren; a step-granddaughter; and three great-grandchildren.

Al and Joyce Jaffee goofing around during a 2016 interview with The Guardian

//TAGS | obit

Luke Cornelius

Luke is an English and American Literature and Creative Writing graduate. He likes spending his time reading comics (obviously), going out on long walks and watching films/TV series.

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