Mad Magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee — who worked on one in all the satirical publication’s hallmarks, the “Fold-In” back cover — has died.
On March 13, he turned 102 years old.
His granddaughter, Fani Thomson, confirmed his death Latest York Times on Monday.
He died of multiple organ failure in a Latest York hospital.
Magazine site published a tribute “peerless” Jaffee, with current and former employees honoring him as a “humble and sort creator”, “totally creative soul”, “bastard at heart”, “national treasure” and more.
“Al was a bastard at heart,” said John Ficarra, former editor-in-chief of Mad who worked with Jaffee for over 35 years, in accordance with the tribute. “He at all times had a mischievous twinkle in his eye and brought that vulnerability to every little thing he created.”
“Al Jaffee was an incredibly talented man who touched our hearts and never ceased to make us laugh,” Jim Lee, DC’s creative director and publisher, said in an announcement on the site. “It has won the highest praise and praise in the world of illustration and comics.”
Tim Heintjes, editor of Hogan’s Alley, a web based art magazine, also announced the news on Twitter.
“It’s with great sadness that I report that the great Al Jaffee has passed away,” Heintjes wrote. “Just last month he celebrated his 102nd birthday. Incredible legend. A RIP for the drawing giant.”
![Legendary](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009455197.jpg?w=1024)
Jaffee created Mad Fold-In in 1964 and, in accordance with The Times, continued to accomplish that until his retirement in 2020.
The article on the back of the magazine looked as if it would appear like every other page, but when it was folded into three parts, the illustrations and text became something completely different.
Lots of them would even have unexpected jokes.
Jaffee was born in Savannah, Georgia, to 2 Jewish immigrants from Lithuania.
When he was 6, his mother brought him and his three younger brothers back to their shtetl in Lithuania, which was only presupposed to last a number of months but lasted six years, in accordance with the Times.
Nonetheless, that is where his love of drawing cartoons began, as his father used to send him and his siblings packages of Sunday cartoons from America, in accordance with the outlet.
He later returned to America when he was 12 and attended the High School of Music and Art in Latest York where he was a member of the school’s top quality.
He began his profession in cartoons in the Nineteen Forties, illustrating publications akin to Joke Comics and Atlas Comics.
He joined Mad Magazine in 1955, with a brief break in between working for Humbug Humor Magazine, in accordance with the deadline.
![Jaffee was the creator of the popular Mad Fold-In feature.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009456118.jpg?w=684)
He returned to Mad in 1958 and worked there until his retirement.
“In the late Fifties, I went to Crazy with some scripts, and the recent editor, Al Feldstein, bought all of them,” Jaffee he told the Vulture about his employment in a 2008 interview.
“Al was a really hands-on editor. NO CRAZY the piece was ever bought without his consent”.
A few of his most memorable Fold-Ins included a tribute to the death of John Lennon and one about the Whitewater scandal during the Clinton administration.
Jaffee explained that he noticed that many other major magazines, akin to Playboy and Life, offer very large spreads – which inspired his unique idea.
“So, naturally, how do you go the other way? You’ve gotten a fold-IN, as an alternative of a fold-outsidehe told the Vulture.
“I made a mock-up and wrote something like, ‘All good magazines do an expansion, but this lousy magazine will do a ‘spread.’ I went to Al Feldstein and showed it to him, but I didn’t think the idea had a likelihood for use.”
But he got used to it and continued in a legacy that amounted to greater than 500 of them created over the years.
Has been featured in lots of Mad books including “Mad’s Vastly Overrated Al Jaffee” in 1976.
In September 2011, Chronicle Books published a four-volume hardcover set of his collection entitled “The Mad Fold-In Collection: 1964–2010”.
Jaffee also served as the illustrator for “Snappy Answers to Silly Questions,” one other clever, long-running Mad movie.
His most up-to-date submission was published in the August 2020 issue of Jaffee magazine – an illustration of Mad Magazine’s mascot Alfred E. Newman surrounded by a mess of buildings with decommissioning signs. If you folded it, it read “No more Jaffee foldable insoles” with an ethereal Jaffee illustration above it, as shown on the CBR.
![He was a regular on Mad Magazine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009456253.jpg?w=731)
In response to Deadline, this was an illustration that was to be published after his death.
In response to the Times, in 1977 Jaffee married his second wife, Joyce Revenson, who died in January 2020.
The artist left behind two children, Richard Jaffee and Deborah Fishman, from his first marriage to Ruth Ahlquist; two stepdaughters, Tracey and Jody Revenson; five grandchildren; in accordance with The Times, one stepdaughter and three great-grandchildren.
When asked about the way forward for cartoons during an interview with Vulture last 12 months, he said there could possibly be big changes in the industry – but one thing at all times stays the same.
![He worked in a warehouse for 55 years.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009456250.jpg?w=755)
“I feel there will likely be drastic changes in relation to business artists. Whilst you were talking, I imagined waking up in the morning with my favorite comic on the panel, scrolling and animated. It should now not be Peanuts with 4 panels and static figurines. Now it can feature characters walking or kicking a ball right in front of you – all on a sheet of something that is no larger than a page,” he explained.
“All of it has to come back. To let you know the truth, I do not know what we’ll gain and what we’ll lose. In fact, you each gain and lose from the advancement of data and technology,” he continued.
“But humor, I do not think any race of individuals can survive without it.”